The research on the deadly truck attack on Bourbon Street in New Orleans continues after a driver plows into a crowd of revelers on New Year’s Day, killed at least 15 people and injured dozens more. The attack is being investigated as an act of terrorism, according to the FBI.
The truck driver was identified as Shamsud-Din Jabbara 42-year-old US citizen from Texas. He was in the U.S. Army, including an 11-month deployment to Afghanistan, according to an Army spokesman. He was discharged in 2015 and worked in real estate in recent years.
Investigators are still looking for a motive. They are also investigating whether Jabbar had accomplices. New Orleans Police Department Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick told “CBS Mornings” Thursday that law enforcement doesn’t know if the driver acted alone, but Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said there is a belief that “there are several people involved and working with the driver. of the vehicle.”
“I want to qualify that it’s not that we think he didn’t act alone, we just don’t know,” Kirkpatrick said. “And so we’ll continue to assume he’s not a lone wolf until we know otherwise.”
Early Wednesday morning, just hours after New Orleans rang in 2025, authorities say Jabbar drove an electric Ford pickup truck. in a crowd of revelers on Bourbon Street, bypassing barriers and climbing onto the sidewalk. He then got out of the car and started shooting at the police. He died after exchanging gunfire with three responding officers, the FBI said. The New Orleans Police Department he said he was hit by police fire and pronounced dead at the scene.
An ISIS flag was found on the truck’s trailer hitch, the FBI said. In televised statements Wednesday eveningPresident Biden said the FBI has determined the man “posted videos on social media that indicated he was inspired by ISIS, expressing a desire to kill” just hours before the attack.
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Investigators found a “weapon and a potential IED,” or improvised explosive device, in the man’s vehicle, the FBI said in a statement Wednesday. “Other possible IEDs were also located in the French Quarter,” where Bourbon Street is located, the statement said. The FBI said late Wednesday that two IEDs had been found and neutralized. A long gun with a suppressor that acted as a silencer was also found in the vehicle, according to law enforcement sources, and the man was wearing body armor.
The number of IEDs left is a big part of why the FBI believes the man may have had an accomplice, sources told CBS News Wednesday.
Murrill said a fire at the Airbnb where the man was staying also led to the belief that he may have had accomplices.
“Yesterday we had information about the placement of the IEDs and the timing of the placement of the IEDs,” Murrill said. “There was a house fire early in the morning, but later than the time of the event at 3am, and so we have good reason to believe that there were multiple people involved.”