Shamsud-Din Jabbar (FBI)
The FBI says the man who carried out the terror attack on Bourbon Street in the early morning hours of New Year’s Day was intent on killing as many people as possible.
Shamsid-Din Jabbar, 42, drove a rented Ford pickup truck on the sidewalk to evade the police patrol vehicle blocking the street from Canal St. and plowed into a crowd, killing 15 people and injuring dozens more.
“After hitting the crowd, he exited the vehicle and fired upon local law enforcement,” FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge Alethea Duncan told a news conference Monday afternoon. “Law enforcement returned fire, and the subject was pronounced deceased at the scene.”
Jabbar was a U.S. citizen from Texas.
“An ISIS flag was located on the trailer hitch of the vehicle,” said Duncan, “and the FBI is working to determine the subject’s potential associations and affiliations with terrorist organizations.”
Duncan says agents found weapons inside Jabbar’s pickup truck.
“Weapons and potential improvised explosive devices — IEDs — were located in the subject’s vehicle,” Duncan said. “Other potential IEDs were also located in the French Quarter.”
The FBI’s Special Agent Bomb Technicians are working with law enforcement partners to determine if any of these devices are viable, and they will work to render those devices safe.
Duncan says Jabbar had accomplices, and agents are looking for them.
“We do not believe that Jabbar was solely responsible,” said Duncan. “We are aggressively running down every lead, including those of his known associates.”
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