The FBI and Division of Homeland Safety on Thursday issued a joint intelligence bulletin warning the nation’s 18,000 law-enforcement businesses about potential copycats in search of to emulate this week’s devastating ramming and taking pictures assault in New Orleans, ABC Information has discovered.
The bulletin was despatched out of an abundance of warning to sensitize legislation enforcement across the nation to be looking out for any exercise pointing to using autos as a way to inflict mass casualties, sources instructed ABC Information.
The bulletin notes that ISIS — to which New Orleans suspect Shamsud-Din Jabbar pledged allegiance earlier than the New Orleans assault, in keeping with FBI Deputy Assistant Director Christopher Raia — has been selling using autos as a terrorism weapon since round 2014.
Sources instructed ABC Information that ISIS has ramped up requires its supporters to launch low-tech, mass casualty ramming assaults in current months, particularly since the latest Israel-Hamas conflict started in October 2023.
The bulletin provided legislation enforcement businesses tips about hazard indicators of upcoming assaults to look out for, together with using pre-operational surveillance and fraudulent id paperwork or credit score to hire autos.
An individual takes a photograph of a memorial to victims of the lethal truck assault on Bourbon Avenue after the world reopened on Jan. 2, 2025, in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Jack Brook/AP
The bulletin acknowledged that Jabbar was impressed by ISIS however that there stays no proof of any co-conspirators. A senior law-enforcement official instructed ABC Information that there’s to this point no signal of ISIS claiming duty for the New Orleans assault.
The continuing investigation into the New Yr’s Day assault on Bourbon Avenue noticed bomb-making supplies recovered by FBI brokers and native legislation enforcement at a residence linked to the suspect in Houston, Texas, on Thursday, sources confirmed to ABC Information.
The objects discovered have been additionally known as “precursor chemical compounds” by brokers within the discipline, sources mentioned. They have been found throughout the execution of a search warrant at Jabbar’s final identified residence within the small group of Greenspoint, in north Houston.
Authorities not imagine there are every other suspects concerned within the New Yr’s truck assault that killed 14 folks and injured 35 others, the FBI mentioned Thursday.
Sixteen folks stay hospitalized at College Medical Heart New Orleans, together with eight in intensive care. The loss of life toll will not be anticipated to rise past 14 folks, Dr. Jeffrey Elder of the College Medical Heart New Orleans instructed ABC Information Stay on Thursday.
After investigators reviewed all surveillance movies, it seems that Jabbar — a 42-year-old Military veteran and U.S.-born citizen from Texas, who additionally died within the assault — positioned explosive gadgets within the space himself after which modified garments, a number of legislation enforcement sources instructed ABC Information.
The FBI continues to be investigating whether or not there have been people Jabbar spoke to or exchanged messages with previous to the early morning Wednesday assault, however nobody was within the neighborhood to assist him do something, the sources mentioned.
Location of New Orleans truck ramming assault
Map tiles by Google Earth
“Federal legislation enforcement and the intelligence group are actively investigating any international or home contacts in connection that would presumably be related to the assault,” President Joe Biden mentioned Thursday.
The FBI’s Raia known as the assault a premeditated “act of terrorism” however mentioned there was no extra menace to the general public.
The FBI launched new surveillance photos of Jabbar in New Orleans a little bit greater than an hour earlier than the assault befell, exhibiting the suspect strolling alongside Dauphine Avenue close to Governor Nicholls Avenue shortly after 2 a.m., carrying a lightweight brown lengthy coat, denims and brown gown sneakers.
The FBI additionally launched a photograph of one of many coolers containing an explosive system that authorities mentioned Jabbar positioned close to the intersection of Bourbon and Orleans Avenue.
Surveillance footage confirmed Jabbar inserting two improvised explosive gadgets in coolers within the Bourbon Avenue space, Raia mentioned. He had a distant detonator within the truck to set off the 2 gadgets, Biden mentioned.
“These are the one two gadgets that we have been in a position to get well that have been practical — each gadgets have been rendered secure on scene,” he mentioned.
Jabbar drove from Houston to New Orleans on Tuesday night and posted a number of movies on-line “proclaiming his help for ISIS,” and mentioning he joined ISIS earlier than this summer time, Raia mentioned.
Jabbar was “hell-bent” on killing as many individuals as attainable, driving a pickup truck onto the sidewalk round a parked police automotive serving as a barricade to plow into pedestrians, officers mentioned.
The suspect mowed down dozens of individuals over a three-block stretch on the world-famous thoroughfare whereas firing into the gang, police mentioned.
Homeland Safety personnel patrol Bourbon Avenue after it was reopened for the 2025 Sugar Bowl recreation, someday after a person launched a car ramming assault throughout New Yr’s celebrations, in New Orleans, Louisiana, on Jan. 2, 2025.
Octavio Jones/Reuters
Jabbar then exited the broken car armed with an assault rifle and opened fireplace on law enforcement officials, legislation enforcement mentioned. He was additionally armed with a handgun, sources instructed ABC Information.
Officers returned fireplace, killing Jabbar. No less than two officers have been injured, one by gunfire and the opposite when the officer was pinned by the truck, authorities mentioned.
New Orleans Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick mentioned safety bollards weren’t working on the time as a result of they have been within the strategy of being changed for subsequent month’s Tremendous Bowl.
Legislation enforcement cleared and reopened Bourbon Avenue on Thursday because the investigation continued. New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell mentioned authorities had the “confidence” to reopen the world to the general public forward of the Sugar Bowl Thursday afternoon, which was initially scheduled for Wednesday however postponed within the wake of the assault.
“I wish to reassure the general public that town of New Orleans will not be solely prepared for recreation day at present, however we’re able to proceed to host large-scale occasions in our metropolis,” she mentioned. “Our hearts and prayers proceed to exit to the victims’ households,” Cantrell added.
Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry on Thursday in contrast the continued investigation to a jigsaw puzzle.
Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, has been recognized because the suspect in an assault that killed a minimum of 15 folks on Bourbon Avenue in New Orleans on New Yr’s Day in 2025.
FBI
Over 400 ideas have been submitted and investigators are combing via Jabbar’s laptops and telephones, Raia mentioned. Greater than 1,000 legislation enforcement officers have been “pouring over numerous quantities of knowledge, of movies, of surveillances, interviews, monitoring down each attainable lead,” Landry mentioned.
Authorities have carried out search warrants in New Orleans and out of doors of Louisiana, the FBI’s New Orleans discipline workplace mentioned.
There is no such thing as a obvious direct connection between the New Orleans assault and Wednesday’s Tesla Cybertruck explosion outdoors the Trump Worldwide Resort Las Vegas, which can be being investigated as a attainable act of terror, Raia from the FBI mentioned Thursday.
Biden mentioned Thursday that investigators “haven’t discovered any proof of such a connection up to now — I’ve directed them to maintain trying.”
The Las Vegas driver was killed and 7 bystanders suffered minor accidents, authorities mentioned. The motive behind the incident stays beneath investigation, however investigators instructed ABC Information they imagine it was “intentional.”
The Cybertruck was rented through the Turo app, as was the truck used within the New Orleans assault, sources instructed ABC Information.
The Cybertruck driver had an Military particular operations background however there isn’t any proof suggesting he and the New Orleans suspect knew one another, in keeping with officers.
