In a self-recorded video, the suspect within the lethal New Orleans truck-ramming attack seemed to be a mean vacationer peddling via the town’s French Quarter on a bicycle whereas sporting what seemed to be a pair of regular sun shades.
However FBI officers now imagine the bike experience Shamsud-Din Jabbar took in late October was not supposed for mere recreation. Lyonel Myrthil, particular agent in control of the bureau’s New Orleans discipline workplace, mentioned throughout a information convention on Sunday that the shades Jabbar was sporting had been a pair of Meta Ray-Ban good glasses, outfitted with cameras within the body, permitting him to take video and images with out utilizing his palms.
“All the pieces he does with the glasses you would do with a cellphone, nevertheless it does provide you with cowl,” mentioned Brad Garrett, a retired FBI profiler and an ABC Information contributor.
The FBI investigates the world on Orleans St and Bourbon Road by St. Louis Cathedral within the French Quarter the place a suspicious bundle was detonated after an individual drove a truck right into a crowd earlier on Bourbon Road, Jan. 1, 2025.
Matthew Hinton/AP
The FBI launched Jabbar’s bike-riding video Sunday, portraying it as a reconnaissance mission to change into aware of the world he allegedly picked to commit an act of home terrorism within the early morning hours of New 12 months’s Day.
The assault killed 14 people and injured dozens extra.
Jabbar, an Military veteran from Houston, died in a gunfight with police earlier than he might set off two improvised explosive units planted in coolers on the streets of the French Quarter, in line with the FBI.
The IEDs didn’t go off both as a result of Jabbar was shot to loss of life earlier than he might detonate them or as a result of he used the mistaken mechanism to detonate the explosives, Joshua Jackson, the particular agent in control of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives discipline workplace in New Orleans, mentioned Sunday.
This handout pictures taken from a video launched by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on January 5, 2025 reveals suspect Shamsud-Din Jabbar recording himself in a mirror along with his Meta glasses earlier than the New Orleans assault on January 1, 2025.
Handout/FBI/AFP by way of Getty Photos
The FBI additionally famous that Jabbar, a U.S.-born citizen, made a number of movies as he drove from Texas to New Orleans on Dec. 31, wherein he professed help for ISIS and claimed he was impressed by the terrorist group to hold out the assault. However Christopher Raia, FBI deputy assistant director from the company’s counterterrorism division, mentioned that investigators haven’t uncovered proof that Jabbar obtained assist in the assault from ISIS — or from another people inside or outdoors of the U.S.
“I’ve by no means heard of anyone utilizing it [the smart glasses] in against the law, however why would not they? I imply it is simply one other piece of expertise,” Garrett mentioned.
Apart from taking video and images, the $300 Meta glasses include audio system that permit customers to speak on the cellphone and talk with their cellphone’s voice-activated digital assistant, corresponding to Siri for iPhones. The glasses may even permit customers to livestream occasions.
“He has on sun shades, he would not have a digital camera in his palms. Who would even keep in mind seeing him, significantly within the French Quarter?” Garrett mentioned. “In different phrases, it is one other option to mix in. You are not just like the touristy man snapping images like we see People do on a regular basis.”
Myrthil mentioned Jabbar, who served as an IT and human assets specialist within the Military, made two journeys to New Orleans prematurely of the assault, one in October the place he recorded the bike-riding video and one other in early November.
The corporate launched the Meta Ray-Ban good glasses in 2021 together with a companion app permitting customers to add content material to social media.
Myrthil mentioned Jabbar was sporting the glasses when he allegedly dedicated the bloodbath, however didn’t activate the glasses’ livestream operate earlier than he was shot lifeless.
Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, has been recognized because the suspect in an assault that killed at the very least 15 folks on Bourbon Road in New Orleans on New 12 months’s Day in 2025.
FBI
Round 3:15 a.m. on Jan. 1, Jabbar allegedly drove round a police automobile blocking Bourbon Road and mowed down folks with a rented Ford F-150 Lightning electrical pickup truck going at excessive velocity. He ultimately crashed and obtained out of the truck firing a .308-caliber semiautomatic rifle at police who shot him lifeless, in line with the FBI.
FBI officers mentioned the assault might have been far worse had Jabbar been capable of set off the explosives {that a} safety video confirmed him planting prematurely of the French Quarter assault.
Meta, the dad or mum firm of Fb, didn’t reply to ABC Information request for remark. In its 2021 “Meta Human Rights Report,” considerations had been raised about privateness violations occurring as a result of glasses.
“Previous to launch, to mitigate human rights points posed by individuals who could misuse such a tool, Meta undertook an inner evaluation of the doable human rights implications of this mission,” in line with the report. “Salient dangers recognized included: knowledgeable consent from bystanders, the security of individuals sporting the system, in addition to its impact on susceptible teams that is likely to be at elevated danger of adversarial results from its operation, like girls and youngsters, human rights defenders, or minority teams.”
The report added, “To mitigate these points, the due diligence train really helpful exploring a number of programs of motion in consideration of bystanders, corresponding to: creating an appropriate use coverage, a do-not-disturb operate, different alerts for bystanders or the choice to tag content material as being from the system when it’s shared.”
Location of New Orleans truck ramming assault
Map tiles by Google Earth
John Lucich, a pc forensic professional and retired regulation enforcement officer with the New Jersey Legal professional Common’s Workplace, informed ABC Information that the authentic makes use of of the Meta glasses are useful to “documenting what an space seems to be like” and that some firms use them to watch the progress on development websites.
“There are quite a lot of nice causes to have this type of stuff. You are on the market with nothing in your palms however you’ll be able to nonetheless take notes, you’ll be able to discuss on the cellphone. It is nice expertise,” mentioned Lucich, president of the Excessive Tech Crime Community, a cyber safety administration agency in Union, New Jersey. “Will probably be utilized by unhealthy guys undoubtedly.”
Nonetheless, each Lucich and Garrett mentioned the glasses can present regulation enforcement with a wealth of data in investigating crimes such because the New Orleans assault.
Lucich mentioned the FBI has probably already served Meta with a communications information warrant, requesting all movies, textual content messages or different messages Jabbar has uploaded via his Meta glasses.
“They will get all of it,” Lucich mentioned.
Requested if the Meta glasses current a brand new problem for regulation enforcement, Garrett mentioned, “I do not assume it is any extra of a problem than what we already face.”
