A US Army veteran drove his truck flying an ISIS flag around makeshift barricades and plowed into New Orleans’ crowded French Quarter on New Year’s Day, killing 15 people, officials said. It is said that it may have been done with the help of others.
The suspect, identified as 42-year-old Shamsuddin Jabbar, a US citizen from Texas who had served in Afghanistan, was killed in a shootout with police after driving away a crowd.
Around 30 other people were injured in the attack, including two police officers who were shot by the suspect. It happened around 3:15am (2:15pm PST) near the intersection of Canal and Bourbon Streets, a historic tourist spot known for its music and bars where crowds were celebrating the New Year.
Police and political leaders vowed to nab any accomplices.
The FBI said police found weapons and a possible explosive device in the car, while two possible explosive devices were found in the French Quarter and were safe.
Officials postponed the Sugar Bowl, a classic college football game played annually on New Year’s Day in New Orleans, because of the threat. The game between Notre Dame and Georgia was halted Thursday afternoon as police cordoned off parts of the city looking for possible explosive devices and scoured neighborhoods for clues.
The city will also host the NFL Super Bowl on February 9.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation said an ISIS flag was displayed next to the crew exiting the rental vehicle’s trailer, prompting an investigation into possible links to terrorist organizations.
“We do not believe Jabbar was solely responsible. We are aggressively reducing every lead, including his known associates,” FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge Alethea Duncan told reporters. Said investigators were looking for “a range of suspects.”
The victims included the mother of a 4-year-old who had moved into a new apartment after receiving a promotion at work, a New York financial worker and a successful student athlete who was home for the holidays, and an 18-year-old Old aspiring nurse from Mississippi.
Biden condemned the attack.
US President Joe Biden condemned it as a “despicable” act and said investigators were looking into possible links to the Tesla truck that caught fire outside the Trump hotel in Las Vegas. Biden said that so far no evidence has been found to link the two incidents.
“The FBI also informed me that just hours before the attack, he had posted videos on social media that appeared to be affiliated with ISIS,” Biden said of the New Orleans suspect. Shows a desire to kill,” Biden said of the New Orleans suspect.
CNN cited officials briefed on the investigation as saying the suspect recorded videos in which he talked about dreams of joining ISIS and thought about killing his family after his divorce.
ISIS – also known as the Islamic State or ISIL – is an outlawed militant group that once terrorized millions in Iraq and Syria even as it continued to be defeated by the US-led coalition. Collapsed after the campaign.
Despite being weakened on the ground, ISIS continues to recruit sympathizers online, experts say.
Public records show Jabbar worked in real estate in Houston. In a promotional video posted four years ago, Jabbar described himself as born and raised in Beaumont, a town about 80 miles east of Houston, and said he spent 10 years in the U.S. military as a human resources and immigration officer. T spent expert.
Jabbar was in the regular army from March 2007 to January 2015 and then in the army reserve from January 2015 to July 2020, an army spokesman said. He was deployed to Afghanistan from February 2009 to January 2010 and at the end of the service held the rank of Staff Sergeant.
‘Scream and Debris’
Mike and Kimberly Strickland of Mobile, Alabama, said they were in New Orleans for a bluegrass concert and were walking back to their hotel just 18 yards from where the truck hit some pedestrians.
“There were people everywhere,” Kimberly Strickland said in an interview. The sound of crushing.”
About 400 officers were on duty in the French Quarter at the time of the incident, including a number who set up a temporary barrier to prevent anyone from entering the pedestrian area, police said.
In response to vehicular attacks on pedestrian malls around the world, New Orleans was in the process of removing and replacing the steel barriers known as bollards that restrict vehicular traffic in the Bourbon Street area.
Construction of the Super Bowl was scheduled to be completed on time. As a temporary measure, police vehicles and officers tried to provide a barrier, Kirkpatrick said.
“We actually had a plan but the terrorist defeated it,” Kirkpatrick said.