Update 3 p.m.: The perpetrator of the attack, Shamsud Din Jabbar, has a Federal Elections Commission record of donating to Democrat campaigns through the Democrats’ main fundraising site, ActBlue.
Update 2 p.m.: FBI said in a statement that the suspect is a U.S. citizen from Texas. The death toll has risen to 15.
“Weapons and a potential IED were located in the subject’s vehicle,” the statement said. “Other potential IEDs were also located in the French Quarter. The FBI’s Special Agent Bomb Technicians are working with our law enforcement partners to determine if any of these devices are viable and they will work to render those devices safe.”
“He was driving a Ford pickup truck, which appears to have been rented and we are working to confirm how the subject came into possession of the vehicle,” the statement said of deceased suspect Shamsud Din Jabbar. “An ISIS flag was located in the vehicle and the FBI is working to determine the subject’s potential associations and affiliations with terrorist organizations.”
Jabbar is an Army veteran who was deployed to Afghanistan for 11 months starting in 2009. He was an IT specialist. Most recently, he lived in a mobile home in the outskirts of Houston, close to a mosque, and in a neighborhood of mostly Muslim immigrants.
Update 8:30 a.m.: The perpetrator has been identified as 42-year-old Shamsud Din Jabbar, who was then shot and killed in a shootout with police, law enforcement sources told Nola.com. The truck Jabbar was driving had a black flag mounted on it. Sources told the New Orleans Advocate that the flag was an ISIS flag, associated with an Islamic terrorist organization.
At least 10 are dead and more than 35 are injured and are at hospitals in the area, including two police officers, after a man drove a pickup truck into a crowd that was celebrating the New Year in the French Quarter of New Orleans at around 3:15 a.m. Wednesday morning.
After running over dozens of people at a high rate of speed, the man exited the truck and fired a weapon, injuring the two police officers.
No information has been released about the man’s identity, but investigators said they found what appear to be explosive devices in the truck. The driver was killed at the scene by police after a gun battle.
A flag, possibly a black flag with white lettering, was mounted on the truck, and law enforcement wrapped it in a gray bag so it was not visible, leading to speculation that this was an act of terror. The ISIS flag is black with white letters.
Mayor Latoya Cantrell called it a terrorist attack, although other officials, including the FBI, stopped short of that description. Update: The FBI has now said it is being investigated as a terrorist attack.
Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick agreed the attack was intentional, as the man drove around barricades on Bourbon Street, which had been blocked off for New Year’s Eve revelers.
“It was very intentional behavior. This man was trying to run over as many people as he possibly could,” the New Orleans police superintendent, Anne Kirkpatrick, said in a news conference early Wednesday. “He was hellbent on creating the carnage, and the damage that he did.”
She said it appears that most of the dead were local residents, not tourists.
The FBI has taken over the lead role in the investigation, but thus far has not identified it as an act of terrorism. The attack came just hours before the kickoff of the Sugar Bowl at the Superdome, less than a mile away.
In a similar attack, on Christmas Day a man of Saudi origin drove his vehicle into a street market in Magdenburg, Germany, killing five and injuring over 40.
Update: A fire broke out at a New Orleans Airbnb rental residence that investigators now believe had been rented by the suspect in the Bourbon Street attack. Dozens of people were evacuated from the building early Wednesday morning when the fire was reported on Mandeville Street, at an address that was about two miles from the Bourbon Street attack.
Update: Fox News reported that the truck used in the New Orleans terrorist attack came through the border at Eagle Pass, Texas two days ago.
Update: At 10 a.m. Eastern, President Joe Biden issued a statement in which he said, “The FBI is taking the lead in the investigation and is investigating this incident as an act of terrorism.”
This story will be updated.
