New Orleans attack: Biden praises city's 'tremendous spirit' as details emerge about suspect
Army veteran Shamsud-Din Jabbar killed at least 14 people in a suspected terror attack. The FBI later said he acted alone, and could not find any link with the explosion of a Tesla Cybertruck in Las Vegas, ITV News Correspondent Robert Moore reports
A US army veteran who drove a pickup truck into a crowd in New Orleans killing 14 people acted alone in an "act of terrorism", according to the FBI.
Biden has praised the city's "tremendous spirit" as he said "they will not let this attack or the the attacker’s deluded ideology overcome us."
At an unrelated White House event, Biden said he ordered accelerated investigations into the attack “so we have answers to our unanswered questions.”
Christopher Raia of the FBI's Counterterrorism Division said although investigations are ongoing, they currently do not believe anyone else was involved in what he called a "senseless attack" launched by Shamsud-Din Jabbar.
Fourteen people were killed after he drove into the crowd and opened fire, and 35 were left injured. Jabbar, 42, was then killed during a shootout with police.
“This was an act of terrorism. It was premeditated and an evil act,” Raia said, adding Jabbar was "100% inspired by ISIS".
Jabbar posted five videos on Facebook proclaiming his support for the terror group before the incident, the FBI also revealed.
Raia added that Jabbar had originally planned to harm his family, but decided against doing so, because he said he wanted news headlines to focus on "the war between believers and disbelievers".
An 18-year-old aspiring nurse, a father of two and a former Princeton university football star were among the dead.
Jabbar's younger brother, Abdur-Rahim Jabbar, said on Thursday it "didn't feel right" that his brother carried out the attack.
“I never would have thought it’d be him,” he said. “It’s completely unlike him.”
He said that his brother had been isolated in the last few years, but that he had also been in touch with him and he didn’t see any signs of radicalisation.
Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, has been named as the driver of the vehicle. In a video posted to YouTube in 2020, he confirmed a period of service to the US army and details about his real estate business.
“It’s completely contradictory to who he was and how his family and his friends know him,” he said.
Giving a timeline of events, Raia said Jabbar picked up the rental vehicle in Houston, Texas, on December 30 before driving it to New Orleans on New Year's Eve.
Jabbar then posted several videos proclaiming his support for ISIS between around 1am and 3am before launching his attack.
Investigators found guns and improvised explosive devices in the vehicle. Raia said the FBI had recovered CCTV of Jabbar placing two improvised explosive devices in coolers in two separate location.
The FBI have also recovered three phones and two laptops belonging to Jabbar, he added.
The rampage on the festive Bourbon Street saw pedestrians fleeing for safety inside nightclubs and restaurants as the assailant, named by investigators as Shamsud-Din Jabbar ploughed into pedestrians.
The street was re-opened by police on Thursday.
Zion Parsons, 18, of Gulfport, Mississippi, said he saw the truck “barreling through, throwing people like in a movie scene, throwing people into the air”.“Bodies, bodies all up and down the street, everybody screaming and hollering,” said Mr Parsons, whose friend Nikyra Dedeaux was among the people killed.
In addition to the dead, dozens of people were hurt. A college football playoff game at the nearby Superdome was postponed and rescheduled to Thursday.
The city's mayor LaToya Cantrell confirmed the game would go ahead despite the ongoing investigation.
"I want to reassure the public that the city of NOLA is not only ready for game day today, but we will continue to host large scale events in our city," she said.
A moment of silence will take place before the game, known as the Sugar Bowl, kicks off.
More than 400 tips have been received by the public, Raia said He urged anyone who knew Jabbar or might have seen him in New Orleans or Texas to contact the FBI.
Jeff Landry, the Governor of Louisiana, likened the ongoing investigation to sifting through the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle.
On Thursday, he said: "Over 1000 law enforcement agents, men and women, have been pouring over countless amounts of data, videos, surveillance, interviews, tracking down every possible lead that came to us."
New Orleans Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick called the attack "evil".
The driver “defeated” safety measures in place to protect pedestrians, Supt Kirkpatrick said, and was “hell-bent on creating the carnage and the damage that he did".
Jabbar joined the Army in 2007, serving on active duty in human resources and information technology and deploying to Afghanistan from 2009 to 2010, the service said. He transferred to the Army Reserve in 2015 and left in 2020 with the rank of staff sergeant.
He drove a rented pickup truck onto a sidewalk, going around a police car that was positioned to block traffic, authorities said. A barrier system meant to prevent vehicle attacks was being repaired in preparation for the Super Bowl in February.
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Jabbar was killed by police after he exited the truck and opened fire on responding officers, Kirkpatrick said. Three officers returned fire. Two were shot and are in stable condition.
Investigators recovered a handgun and AR-style rifle, according to a law enforcement official.“For those people who don’t believe in objective evil, all you have to do is look at what happened in our city early this morning," US Senator John Kennedy, a Louisiana Republican, said.
Biden, speaking from the presidential retreat at Camp David, called the attack a “despicable” and “heinous act.” Addressing the victims and the people of New Orleans, he said: “I want you to know I grieve with you. Our nation grieves with you as you mourn and as you heal.”“My heart goes out to the victims and their families who were simply trying to celebrate the holiday,” Biden said in an earlier written statement. “There is no justification for violence of any kind, and we will not tolerate any attack on any of our nation’s communities.”
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