AT LEAST 15 people were killed in a devastating attack in New Orleans when a terrorist smashed a truck into partygoers before opening fire.
The FBI is currently working on understanding the New Year’s Day assault and trying to determine the motives behind the attacker’s actions. However, many details are still unclear, despite emerging information about the individual identified as Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar.
The havoc in Louisiana commenced around 3:15 am on Wednesday, as disturbing videos captured the driver maneuvering past barriers intended to prevent acts of terrorism.
These had been set up around the city to stop cars from passing through ahead of the upcoming Allstate Sugar Bowl match.
The driver appeared to have crossed past the barrier at the perfect time to execute his attack whilst the barriers were reportedly being replaced.
A man, believed to be Jabbar, then drove up to a busy crowd of people and rammed into them – sending dozens flying.
Cops believe Jabbar intentionally hit the revellers with the white Ford pickup and was trying to “run over as many people as he possibly could”.
New Orleans police superintendent, Anne Kirkpatrick, later said the man was “hellbent on creating carnage”.
She added that the gunman drove the truck “at a very fast pace”.
“This is not just an act of terrorism. This is evil,” she added.
Jabbar allegedly then jumped out of the car after crashing into a crane and opened fire on civilians and cops, shooting two policemen.
The gunman was shot dead by the officers and later identified as Jabbar.
Shortly after the car-ramming incident in New Orleans, a Tesla Cybertruck loaded with fireworks and combustible materials detonated outside a hotel owned by Donald Trump in Los Angeles.
Here are four key questions about the attack that remain unanswered.
Did he know the barriers would be down?
In order to speed down Bourbon Street and into crowds, the driver of the Ford truck had to get around anti-terror security barriers that were installed in 2017.
The barriers were being replaced when the car entered the street – leading to speculation the driver may have known about the scheduled replacement.
Work on the bollards began in November as was scheduled to last three months.
A witness, Jimmy Cothran, told NBC News that he had been surprised to see that the metal barricades that usually block off Bourbon Street were not deployed on New Year’s Eve.
“They weren’t up, so you still kind of had to watch your back for cars,” he said.
The work involves removing and replacing sections of road to take out existing bollards Bob Simms, who until recently oversaw security the French Quarter Management District, said the old bollards had been in dire need of replacement.
“They were very ineffective. The track was always full of crap; beads and doubloons and God knows what else. Not the best idea,” Simms said.
“Eventually everybody realized the need to replace them.
“They’re in the process of doing that, but the new ones are not yet operational.”
Had the bollards been operational, they would have prevented any vehicle from entering the street, according to US rep Troy Carter.
The politician said it was “unacceptable” that something else, like a “tow truck” had not been moved in to replace the bollards.
New Orleans Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said that police were aware of the security issue presented by the missing bollards and did “harden those target areas where the bollards” previously were with patrol cars and other measures.
“In this particular case, the terrorist just went all the way around up onto the sidewalk,” she said.
“We did have a car there, we had barriers there, we had officers there, and they still got around,” she said.
Did he work with the Vegas Cybertruck bomber?
Just a few hours later after the New Orleans car-ramming attack, a Tesla Cybertruck packed with fireworks and fuel exploded outside one of Donald Trump’s hotels in Los Angeles.
Elon Musk has claimed the blast that injured seven and killed one was “terrorism”.
The driver was killed in the explosion and has been identified as another US Army veteran, Matthew Livelsberger.
Now, it has now been revealed that Livelsberger served in the same army base as Jabbar – the New Orleans suspect.
Cops have no confirmed that the two events were definitely linked, but President Joe Biden has spoken out about the possibility.
Speaking on the Las Vegas blast, the outgoing president said: “Law enforcement and the intelligence community are investigating this as well, including whether there is any possible connection with the attack in New Orleans.
“Thus far there is nothing to report on that score for this time.”
On Thursday, FBI deputy assistant director Christopher Raia said there is no definitive evidence linking the LA Tesla explosion with the New Orleans truck attack.
He also said the FBI did not believe that anyone else was involved in the New Orleans attack.
Were there crucial missed chances?
An ISIS flag and suspected homemade bombs were discovered with the truck by investigators after the attack, leading the FBI to investigate it as an “act of terrorism”.
Joe Biden said the FBI had found videos posted by the suspect just hours before the attack where he said he had a “desire to kill” and was “inspired by” the Islamic State.
In the videos, Jabbar discusses how he had planned to gather his family for a “celebration” and then kill them, but changed his plans and joined ISIS.
Officials said he recounted several dreams that convinced him he should become a terrorist.
Jabbar expressed an interest in firearms in 2021 when he wrote on a now-deleted X profile: “It’s a shoot-the-guns type of Saturday morning.”
He later posted a photo of two people standing while a third person fired a gun.
Public records show that Jabbar’s second wife, with whom his divorce was finalised in 2022, had a restraining order taken out against him.
It is not clear why this order was taken out.
The New York Times reported that Jabbar has been arrested twice: once in Katy, texas, for theft in 2002, and once in 2005 for driving with an invalid licence.
In both cases he was fined $100 by the court.
Dwayne Marsh, the current husband of Jabbar’s first wife, said that the 42-year-old veteran had been acting erratically in recent months.
He said Jabbar had been “being all crazy, cutting his hair“.
However, his neighbours and most who knew him have said they were very surprised to learn Jabbar was the suspect.
Chris Pousson, 42, a retired Air Force veteran who also lives in Beaumont, said he attended middle school and high school with “Sham,” as he was known then, and described him as “quiet, reserved, and really, really smart.”
Pousson said: “He wasn’t a troublemaker at all.”
“He made good grades and was always well-dressed in button-ups and polo shirts.”
He said Jabbar’s suspected involvement is a “complete 180 from the quiet, reserved person I knew”.
How and why was he radicalised?
Jabbar’s brother, Abdur Jabbar, 24, said that the suspect had been raised as a Christian but converted to Islam at young age.
On Thursday an FBI spokesman Raia said that in videos recorded shortly before the attack, Jabbar said he joined ISIS “before the summer“.
Pousson said that when he reconnected with Jabbar in 2015, he noticed the latter had become deeply engaged in his Muslim faith, in a way not apparent when he was younger.
“Before, if he was into it, he wasn’t open or verbal about it,” Pousson said.
But by 2015, Jabbar was making lots of posts about religion on Facebook.
“It was never Muslim extremist stuff, and he was never threatening any violence, but you could see that he had gotten really passionate.”
Jabbar is known to have struggled to adjust to life after leaving the army.
In a 2015 interview with Georgia State University’s student paper, Jabbar said that the Department of Veterans Affairs had made it difficult to get paid through the G.I. Bill.
“It’s such a large agency,” Jabbar told a student reporter.
Jabbar was deployed to Afghanistan in a non-combat role between 2009 and 2010.
The FBI has repeatedly warned about a heightened terrorism threat due to the Israel-Hamas war.
