New Orleans killer was lone wolf terror suspect: FBI
A US Army veteran who drove a pick-up truck into a crowd of New Year’s revellers in New Orleans, killing 14 people, had originally planned to kill his family, says the FBI.
But the terror suspect was concerned about the types of headlines such an attack would generate.
So he changed his plans because he wanted the media coverage to focus on the “war between the believers and the disbelievers”.
The chilling details were released on Friday (AEDT) as the FBI confirmed it believed that Shamsud-Din Jabbar was a lone wolf terrorist who had acted alone.
Investigators trawled through the terror suspect’s social media posts and devices but did not find evidence of collaborators.
The announcement reverses a statement on Thursday (AEDT) that investigators believed the suspect was not solely responsible.
The FBI also said there appeared to be no link to a Tesla Cybertruck, stuffed with fireworks mortars and camping canisters, that exploded outside Donald Trump’s Las Vegas hotel.
A man found dead in the Cybertruck had a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head. He was identified as army veteran Matthew Livelsberger.
FBI counterterrorism deputy assistant director Christopher Raia said the New Orleans attack was an “act of terrorism”.
“It was premeditated and an evil act,” he said.
Jabbar, 42, a US citizen from Texas who had once served in Afghanistan, was shot dead at the scene after firing at police.
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One of his victims was the mother of a four-year-old who had just moved into a new apartment after getting a promotion at work.
Other victims were a New York financial employee and accomplished student-athlete who was visiting home for the holidays, and an 18-year-old aspiring nurse from Mississippi.
The FBI named the suspect as Texas man Shamsud-Din Jabbar. Photo: Supplied
Hours before the attack on New Year’s Day, Jabbar drove from Houston to New Orleans and posted videos to social media saying he was inspired by the Islamic State group and expressing a desire to kill.
The videos were posted to Facebook between 1.29am and 3.02am on the morning of the attack on Wednesday (local time).
In the first video, Jabbar explains he had previously planned to harm his family and friends.
CNN said sources revealed he had at first planned to gather his family for a “celebration” with the intention of killing them.
Jabbar also said in the videos that he had joined IS before last summer and provided his last will and testament, Raia said.
The driver steered around a police blockade and slammed into revellers before being shot dead by police as a terrorist act and did not believe he acted alone.
Investigators found guns and what appeared to be an improvised explosive device in the vehicle — which bore the flag of the Islamic State group — along with other explosive devices elsewhere in the city’s famed French Quarter.
President Joe Biden called the attack a “despicable” and “heinous act”.
The rampage turned festive Bourbon Street into a macabre scene of maimed victims, bloodied bodies and pedestrians fleeing for safety inside nightclubs and restaurants.
At least 15 people were killed, including the suspect, the FBI said.
Zion Parsons, 18, of Gulfport, Mississippi, said he saw the truck “barrelling 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 Parsons, whose friend Nikyra Dedeaux was among the people killed.
“There were people everywhere,” Kimberly Strickland of Mobile, Alabama, said in an interview.
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“You just heard this squeal and the rev of the engine and this huge loud impact and then the people screaming and debris — just metal — the sound of crunching metal and bodies.”
The driver “defeated” safety measures in place to protect pedestrians, said New Orleans Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick, and was “hell-bent on creating the carnage and the damage that he did”.
Investigators found improvised explosives, including two pipe bombs in portable coolers that were wired for remote detonation, according to a Louisiana State Police intelligence bulletin obtained by The Associated Press.
Jabbar drove a rented pick-up truck onto a footpath, going around a police car that was positioned to block traffic, authorities said.
Police killed Jabbar after he exited the truck and opened fire on responding officers, Kirkpatrick said, injuring two of them.
Investigators recovered a handgun and AR-style rifle, according to a law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
There were also deadly explosions in Honolulu and outside a Las Vegas hotel owned by President-elect Donald Trump.
A Tesla Cybertruck packed with petrol canisters and large firework mortars exploded in flames outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas, just weeks before president-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House on January 20.
A man who died inside the Tesla suffered a gunshot to the head before the explosion, officials say.
Clark County Sheriff Kevin McMahill said at a news conference that a handgun was found at the feet of the man who has been identified as Matthew Livelsberger.
Officials believe the shot was self-inflicted.
Livelsberger served in the Green Berets, highly trained special forces who work to counter terrorism abroad and train partners, the army said in a statement.
He had served in the army since 2006, rising through the ranks with a long career of overseas assignments, deploying twice to Afghanistan and serving in Ukraine, Tajikistan, Georgia and Congo, the US army said.
He was awarded two Bronze Stars, including one with a valour device for courage under fire, a combat infantry badge and an Army Commendation Medal with valour.
Livelsberger was on approved leave when he died, according to the statement.
Both Livelsberger and Jabbar spent time at the base formerly known as Fort Bragg, a massive army base in North Carolina that is home to multiple army special operations units.
However, one of the officials who spoke to the AP said there is no overlap in their assignments at the base, now called Fort Liberty.
Public records showed Jabbar worked in real estate in Houston.
In a promotional video posted four years ago, Jabbar described himself as born and raised in Beaumont, a city about 130km east of Houston.
Jabbar was in the regular army from March 2007 until January 2015 and then in the army reserve from January 2015 until July 2020, an army spokesperson said.
He deployed to Afghanistan from February 2009 to January 2010 and held the rank of staff sergeant at the end of service.
-with AAP
