Topline
The suspect in the New Orleans attack on New Year’s Day recorded video of the French Quarter wearing camera-equipped glasses designed by Meta in October, the FBI revealed Sunday—in one of two prior visits to the scene of a deadly truck-ramming attack the FBI is investigating as ISIS-inspired.
Memorials for people killed on Bourbon Street in the attack on New Year’s Day are seen on January … [+]
Getty ImagesKey Facts
Shamsud-Din Jabbar, who is accused of driving a truck into a crowd on Bourbon Street and killing 14 people, wore the glasses as he rode through the French Quarter on a bicycle during a visit to the city in October, according to footage taken from his glasses and published online by the FBI.
He also visited New Orleans on Nov. 10, the FBI said, though it’s unclear whether he recorded footage during that trip.
Jabbar, who was killed in a shootout with police at the scene, was wearing the glasses during the attack Wednesday, but there is no indication the video camera was actively recording, FBI Special Agent in Charge Lyonel Mythril said.
Mythril disclosed the details Sunday during a press conference in which he detailed new findings about Jabbar’s whereabouts and activities in the lead-up to the attack.
Footage released Sunday also shows Jabbar testing the glasses in a mirror and surveillance video shows him placing coolers holding improvised explosive devices (IEDs) on Bourbon Street, officials said.
Mythril also said Jabbar traveled to Cairo, Egypt, in late June and into early July 2023, and made a brief stop in Ontario, Canada, before returning to the United States.
The FBI is probing whether the trips were connected to the New Orleans attack, Mythril said.
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What Else Do We Know About Jabbar’s Timeline?
Mythril said Jabbar went to multiple gun stores, including one in Texas on Dec. 31, in the days before the attack. He then visited a business in Texas where he purchased a cooler where he hid one of the IEDs, Mythril said. He arrived in Louisiana on Dec. 31 around 2:30 p.m., and was later captured on surveillance footage unloading a white pickup truck outside of his rental home in New Orleans hours before the attack. Officials say Jabbar rammed the truck through a crowd of pedestrians on Bourbon Street around 3:15 a.m. early Wednesday, killing 14 and injuring dozens of others. Two officers were injured in a shootout with Jabbar before he was killed at the scene, officials said. Authorities later responded to a fire at his rental home in the St. Roch neighborhood of New Orleans and have determined he set the fire just before the attack, the FBI said. Authorities found materials they suspect were intended to make explosives and a rifle silencer at the home and multiple weapons and a transmitter to detonate the explosives he left on Bourbon Street inside the truck.
Key Background
The FBI has uncovered several pieces of evidence that suggest Jabbar was inspired by ISIS in the attack, including an ISIS flag on the trailer hitch of the rented vehicle he drove into the crowd. Jabbar also posted videos to Facebook hours before the attack claiming he had joined ISIS before the summer and hoped news coverage would depict the attack as a “war” between believers and nonbelievers, officials said. The FBI has said it believes Jabbar acted alone in the attack. Jabbar, 42, said in previous social media videos he was born in Beaumont, Texas, and worked in real estate in the Houston area. He served in active duty in the Army from 2007-2015, including a deployment to Afghanistan in 2009, an unnamed Army spokesperson told CNN.
Further Reading
New Orleans Truck Attack Suspect Identified—Here’s What We Know About Him (Forbes)
13 New Orleans Attack Victims Identified By Families—Here’s What We Know So Far (Forbes)
New Orleans Truck Attack: Biden Says Truck Contained Remote Detonator For Explosives In French Quarter (Forbes)
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