The man who carried out an attack on Bourbon Street in New Orleans early New Year’s morning visited the city twice in the months prior and used Meta smart glasses to film the street and plan out the attack, FBI New Orleans Special Agent in Charge Lyonel Myrthil said Sunday.
The attacker, Shamsud-Din Jabbar, stayed at a rental home in New Orleans from October 30 for a few days, and during that time recorded video as he bicycled through the French Quarter, Myrthil said. He also visited New Orleans on November 10, and investigators were still putting together the details of that trip.
He was wearing a pair of Meta smart glasses while carrying out the attack on New Year’s, but he did not activate them that day. The glasses were found on him after his death.
His planning was revealed in a news conference Sunday in which officials provided a timeline of his movements and released videos of his actions hours before the attack.
Jabbar, a 42-year-old Army veteran who had pledged allegiance to ISIS, drove a pickup truck into scores of Bourbon Street revelers just after 3 a.m. on New Year’s Day and then opened fire, killing 14 and injuring at least 35, according to the FBI. The vehicle ultimately crashed into a cherry picker forklift, and Jabbar was killed in a shootout with police.
The mass killing has raised questions as to how the city secured Bourbon Street and how a heavy-duty truck was able to drive onto one of the most pedestrian-heavy roads in the US.
“The NOPD has a comprehensive security plan in place for the Joan of Arc parade and all parades moving forward,” NOPD said. “We are hardening our targets and strategically placing resources to ensure the event is safe and enjoyable for everyone. While we cannot disclose specific operational details, we want to assure the public that we are fully prepared and working closely with our partners to provide a secure environment.”
All 14 of the victims from the New Year’s attack have now been identified and named. The final victim identified was Latasha Polk, a certified nursing assistant and mother of a 14-year-old, Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry said in the news conference.
Her family believes that “Latasha would’ve wanted the city to turn out in celebration, but tinged with grief but not in fear,” Landry said.
Random person moved IED, FBI says
Jabbar entered Louisiana at about 2:30 p.m. December 31 and unloaded his rented Ford F150 truck at an Airbnb at about 10 p.m., the FBI said.
About 15 minutes after midnight, Jabbar set fire to the rental home and left in the truck, said Joshua Jackson, the special agent in charge of the New Orleans field division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
“We believe he did this and his hope was to burn the entire house down and hide evidence of his crimes,” Jackson said. He also theorized that the fire could have been a “distraction” to divert police and fire resources.
The blaze failed to engulf the home, and the fire department put out the fire just after 5 a.m.
After leaving the rental home, Jabbar placed two improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, on Bourbon Street, and a transmitter to detonate the IEDs was found in his vehicle, the FBI said. Bomb-making materials were also found at the Airbnb and at his home in Houston.
He placed one IED in a rolling cooler and a second IED in a bucket cooler and left both on Bourbon Street, Myrthil said. He left the rolling cooler at Bourbon and St. Peter Street at 1:53 a.m., but “someone on Bourbon Street, who we have no reason to believe was involved, dragged the cooler a block” away on Bourbon and Orleans, he said.
Investigators found the cooler at that second position after the attack. The second IED, in the bucket cooler, was placed at 2:20 a.m. at the intersection of Bourbon and Toulouse streets.
Officials have said Jabbar acted alone.
Two guns were recovered in the attack, a semi-automatic pistol and semi-automatic rifle, Jackson said. Jabbar purchased the rifle in a private sale November 19 in Arlington, Texas, from a person who did not know Jabbar and had no awareness of the attack, Jackson said. These types of transactions are legal in Texas.
Finally, investigators are looking into Jabbar’s trips to Egypt and Canada and other visits to Atlanta and Tampa, according to Myrthil. He traveled to Cairo from June 22 to July 3, 2023, and visited Ontario from July 10 to July 13, 2023, he said. FBI agents are digging into what he did on those trips and whether they tie into the attack.
Mayor calls for review of city’s security plan
New Orleans has been installing new, removable stainless-steel bollards along several blocks, but those were not expected to be ready until the Super Bowl next month.
At Sunday’s news conference, New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell announced a plan to ask a tactical expert to review the city’s security plans “to determine whether or not these bollards are sufficient.”
“If they’re not, how, and what, and where do they need to be placed,” she said. “This is a work in progress, and we’re committed to doing everything necessary to ensure public safety measures.”
The potential threat of a ramming attack has been well known at least since the mass ramming attack in Nice, France, on Bastille Day in 2016.
In New Orleans, a private security consulting firm warned in a 2019 report that the risk of terrorism in the French Quarter – specifically mass shootings and vehicular attacks – remained “highly possible while moderately probable.”
“The current bollard system on Bourbon Street does not appear to work,” the report said.
The city previously installed some wedge barricades on Bourbon Street but did not have them raised and in position on New Year’s Eve, and officials said they did not work properly. New Orleans also owns some other temporary barriers, known as Archer barriers, but Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said she “didn’t know about them” prior to the attack.
On the night of the attack, a police vehicle was positioned sideways to try to block off Bourbon Street, but the attacker drove onto the sidewalk to evade it and then sped down the street.
“We did indeed have a plan,” Kirkpatrick said. “But the terrorist defeated it.”
This is a developing story and will be updated.