The Texas man who plowed a rented pickup truck into New Year’s revelers on New Orleans’ Bourbon Street Wednesday, Shamsud-Din Jabbar, and the man eyed in the explosion of a Tesla Cybertruck outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas hours later, Matthew Livelsberger, were both Army soldiers who served at Fort Liberty and deployed to Aghanistan in 2009, according to authorities.
A defense official, however, told Fox News that there was no evidence based on their military service that the attacks were related. While both men served at Fort Liberty, formerly known as Fort Bragg, they were there at different times. The North Carolina base is currently home to more than 50,000 service members.
Authorities continued to release new information at separate news briefings Thursday, with FBI Deputy Assistant Director Christopher Raia telling reporters in New Orleans that there was “no definitive link” uncovered between the attack and the explosion.
Security cameras showed multiple people stopping and looking at the coolers before walking away, he added. Those people are asked to contact the FBI.
“We want to talk to anyone who was in the French quarter on New Year’s Eve or early on New Year’s Day,” he said. “That includes people spotted near one of the two IEDs on Bourbon Street. The IED was inside a cooler and maybe people stopped and looked at the cooler and then continued on their way.”
He said they are not considered suspects “in any way.”
Investigators blocked off Bourbon Street in New Orleans on Thursday, Jan. 2, 2024. Multiple people are dead and dozens others are injured after a man drove into a crowd of New Year’s Eve revelers on Wednesday. (Audrey Conklin/Fox News Digital)
“We want to speak to them as witnesses and want to know what they saw and when,” he added.
Jabbar was an Army veteran as a human resource specialist and IT specialist from March 2007 until 2015. He then continued as an IT specialist in the Army Reserve until July 2020.
More recently, he worked for Deloitte, a major international accounting firm where he made about $10,000 a month, according to FOX Business.
Raia said it was still “very early” in the investigation, but the FBI had not uncovered any ties between the New Orleans attack and an explosion of a rented Tesla Cybertruck outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas.
David Katz, a former federal agent and firearms trainer and now the CEO of Global Security Group, told Fox News Digital that a potential military connection would be a red flag reminiscent of the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995. The bomber Timothy McVeigh and accomplice Terry Nichols met while in the Army.
“It’s just worth noting that sometimes military service brings people who are like-minded together,” he said. “And of course, those people can be very dangerous because of their military training.”
Both investigations remain ongoing.
Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry condemned the ideology that spurred the Bourbon Street attack and praised law enforcement.
“In order to protect Americans from evil, you have to crush it,” he said.
Fox News’ Liz Friden and Anders Hagstrom contributed to this report.
