close
close

As we know, details are coming to light about the suspect, the victims and the “ISIS-inspired” plot.

A US Army veteran who He drove his truck into a crowd of revelers On New Year’s Day on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, which left at least 14 people dead and dozens injured, according to the FBI, he declared his support for ISIS hours before the attack.

The suspect – identified by the FBI as Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a 42-year-old U.S. citizen from Texas and Army veteran – was killed in a shootout with police early Wednesday morning. Investigators initially said they believed Jabbar was working with others to carry out the attack, and they were looking for other suspects. However, on Thursday, the FBI said it now believes Jabbar acted alone.

“This was an act of terrorism,” FBI Deputy Director Christopher Raia told reporters, adding that Jabbar was “100% inspired by ISIS.”

Trusted news and daily delights, straight to your inbox

See for yourself – The Yodel is your go-to source for daily news, entertainment and feel-good stories.

Authorities also said they were investigating a possible link to Tesla Cybertruck explosion on Wednesday outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas, but stressed that there is currently no definitive link between the two attacks.

Here’s everything we know so far about the deadly New Year’s Eve attack in New Orleans.

A pickup truck plowed into a crowd of people at Canal and Bourbon streets in New Orleans.

A pickup truck plowed into a crowd of people at Canal and Bourbon streets in New Orleans. (Gerald Herbert/AP)

The FBI now believes the attacker acted alone, having declared his support for ISIS on Facebook

During a news conference Thursday, the FBI and other law enforcement officials said they were reviewing “hundreds of hours of surveillance” in the French Quarter and other locations and had received more than 400 tips from the public.

Raia provided a timeline of Jabbar’s actions leading up to the attack:

  • On Monday, December 30, Jabbar picked up a loaner F-150 pickup truck in Houston.

  • On Tuesday, December 31, Jabbar drove from Houston to New Orleans.

  • On Wednesday, January 1, between 1:29 a.m. and 3:02 a.m., Jabbar posted five videos on Facebook in which he declared his support for ISIS. In the first video, Raia said Jabbar talked about how he originally intended to hurt his family and friends, but was concerned that news headlines would not focus on the “war between believers and unbelievers.” Jabbar also stated that he joined ISIS before the summer and provided a will.

The FBI added that three phones linked to Jabbar were recovered. “Utilizing digital media is a priority to verify what is on the devices and determine if there are any other potential leads,” Raia said. Two laptops were also found in the home in Mandeville, Los Angeles, and are currently being examined by the FBI.

Investigators said they recovered an ISIS flag from the pickup truck, and FBI bomb technicians also found two improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in refrigerators: one found at the intersection of Bourbon and Orleans streets and the other at another intersection about two blocks away. Raia told reporters that the two other devices in question were not IEDs.

Authorities said the attacker drove around a police blockade on Bourbon Street, a famous party street in the French Quarter, early on New Year’s Day and drove a pickup truck into a crowd of people on the sidewalk before exiting the vehicle and opening fire on responding officers. The driver was fatally shot. Two officers were also shot but are in stable condition.

The FBI has previously said so test AND residential area in Houstonwith the help of local authorities in connection with the attack.

Before the attack, New Orleans was replacing security barriers around Bourbon Street

New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell said Wednesday that older security barriers protect the Bourbon Street area were malfunctioning and were removed before the New Year attack. “The batting has not been set because it is almost complete and is expected to be completed in time for the Super Bowl,” she said.

New Orleans Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick, however, said police were aware the bollards had been removed and implemented tighter security measures. “We had a car there,” she said of the area the attacker managed to drive through. “We had barriers there, we had officers there, and they continued to move.”

Emergency crews responded to the scene on Bourbon Street after a vehicle drove into a crowd at Canal and Bourbon Streets in New Orleans, Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

Gerald Herbert/AP

The driver involved in the attack “defied” security measures put in place around Bourbon Street and was “very intent on causing the carnage and damage he caused,” Kirkpatrick said.

Reuters reported that a 2017 report commissioned by the city of New Orleans found that the French Quarter “is often densely packed with pedestrians and is an area where a mass casualty incident may occur.”

The victims are a single mother, a father of two children, a student and a recent high school graduate

New Orleans police and the Orleans Parish coroner’s office have not yet released the names of the victims who died, but family members and universities have begun confirming the identities of some of the victims to multiple news outlets and social media.

  • Nicole Perez, late 1920s and A single mother for a four-year-old son

Gerres