Louisiana officials, FBI, and ATF held a press conference to provide an update on the New Year’s Day terror attack in New Orleans that left 15 dead and many others injured.
The attacker, identified as 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Jabbar from Texas, drove a rented pickup truck into a crowd on Bourbon Street, and the incident is being investigated as a terrorist attack after an Islamic State flag was found in the vehicle.
The big picture: The FBI’s deputy assistant director of the Counterterrorism Division revealed that Jabbar had planned the attack in advance, posting videos professing his support for ISIS online and planting IED devices near the attack site before carrying out the rampage.
- The FBI believes that Jabbar acted alone in the attack, and they are urging anyone with information about the suspect or the incident to come forward.
- Authorities recovered several devices linked to Jabbar, including phones and laptops, from a residence in Mandeville, Louisiana.
