Update (1349ET):

On Sunday, FBI New Orleans Special Agent in Charge Lyonel Myrthil told reporters that the investigation into the terror suspect, Shamsud-Din Jabbar, responsible for last week’s Bourbon Street massacre, has “crossed state and international borders.” 

Jabbar also visited New Orleans in October and used Meta smart glasses to map out the terror attack in the French Quarter.

An earlier report from ABC News revealed Jabbar traveled to Egypt in 2023.

Jabbar left a recorded video to his family, in which he spoke about his plans to kill them and informed them he had joined ISIS:

“I wanted to record this message for my family,” adding, “I wanted you to know that I joined ISIS earlier this year.“

It’s unclear when Jabbar became radicalized. According to Fox News’ Lucas Tomlinson:

“FBI: Shamsud-Din Jabbar acted alone in carrying out New Orleans rampage, but ‘still looking’ into potential contacts in the US and overseas.” 

Federal investigators have not said whether the overseas investigation into the terror suspect was due to his past travels or if a deeper dive into public records might have uncovered connections with individuals or entities linked to terror organizations in one or two steps or possibly three steps away. 

Jabbar’s car-ramming attack is consistent with other recent attacks in Europe, the latest being the German Christmas market attack. 

The “lone wolf” (or individual jihad) attack in New Orleans should be very concerning and dangerous for US counterterrorism officials, as there’s no telling how many attackers are pre-trained and ready to strike within the country. Besides Americans becoming radicalized by ISIS (and or other terror organizations.), there is a much more serious concern that the Biden-Harris administration’s open border policies have compromised national security by flooding terrorists through porous southern and northern borders. Also, legitimate refugee pathways are another significant concern.

Former CIA targeting officer Sarah Adams speculated on a recent episode of The Shawn Ryan Show that an Al-Qaeda “Homeland Attack” has likely already been set in motion.

Isn’t it strange that the rise in terrorism across the Homeland is happening just before Trump takes office? 

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The terrorist who killed 14 people and hurt 35 more in New Orleans in the early hours of New Year’s Day prepositioned bombs that used an extraordinarily rare explosive compound, senior law enforcement officials have told NBC News. The two devices didn’t detonate, but authorities are scrambling to learn how Shamsud-Din Jabbar was able to incorporate a type of explosive that has never before been used in a terror attack in America or Europe.   

At around 3 am on Wednesday, Texas-born Houston resident Shamsud-Din Jabbar used a pickup truck to plow a path of carnage through a crowd of New Year’s partiers on Bourbon Street, before police killed him in a shootout. The 42-year-old US Army veteran’s plan had another dimension of death that he failed to execute: The FBI and ATF say he’d built two bombs that were rigged to be detonated with a transmitter that was found in his rented Ford F-150 truck.

The improvised explosive devices were placed in recreational coolers that Jabbar placed on Bourbon Street; that action was recorded on security cameras. Neither bomb exploded, and investigators are still trying to determine whether that fortunate fact springs from a design flaw, a malfunction or Jabbar’s failing to attempt to trigger the devices. 

The FBI released this photo of a cooler said to contain an improvised explosive device made by Bourbon Street terrorist Shamsud-Din Jabbar

The officials who told NBC News about the rare explosive apparently stopped short of naming it, but emphasized that it was the first time it had been used in the United States, and had likewise never been used by terrorists anywhere in Europe. Investigators are now trying to determine how Jabbar learned about the extraordinary compound and how he was able to manufacture it. 

Given the particulars of his military service, it’s unlikely Jabbar’s novel bomb-making knowledge was gained during his time in uniform. “Jabbar was in the regular Army as a Human Resource Specialist (42A) and Information Technology (IT) Specialist (25B) from March 2007 until January 2015 and then in the Army Reserve as an IT Specialist (25B) from January 2015 until July 2020,” a Pentagon official told Task & Purpose. “He deployed to Afghanistan from February 2009 to January 2010. He held the rank of Staff Sergeant at the end of service.”

No Rambo: Jabbar’s Army time was spent in human resources and information technology 

The pickup truck that Jabbar used to murder 14 people and wound dozens more was adorned with an ISIS flag. Law enforcement officials say that he posted videos to Facebook hours before his attack. Seemingly created for the benefit of his family, the videos showed him pledging allegiance to the Salafist terror group as he was driving. Remarkably, he said he’d considered attacking his family and friends, but rejected the idea out of concern that ensuing news coverage would fail to properly focus on the “war between the believers and the disbelievers.”  After he was killed, police found he’d been armed with an AR-15 and a handgun. 

Before launching his attack on innocent revelers, Jabbar set his short-term rental house ablaze, but “the fire burned to a point that it extinguished itself prior to spreading to other rooms,” federal investigators say. The arson stopped short despite Jabbar having apparently positioned accelerants throughout the house. The house on Mandeville Street in New Orleans held bomb-making materials and what police believe is a homemade rifle silencer.  Similar bomb materials were found at Jabbar’s house on Crescent Peak Drive in Houston, in a predominantly Muslim neighborhood on the city’s north side. 

Jabbar’s Houston house after federal investigators raided it soon after his rampage in New Orleans.

In its Friday statement, the FBI said it had brought an additional 200 personnel to New Orleans to boost the investigation, noting the bureau had received nearly 1,000 tips and was evaluating “terabytes worth of video and other data collected by street cameras monitored by the New Orleans Real Time Crime Center.” 

While the FBI earlier suspected that Jabbar had accomplices, the bureau now says otherwise. “We do not assess at this point that anyone else is involved in this attack other than Shamsud-Din Jabbar,” said Christopher Raia, deputy assistant director of the FBI’s counterintelligence division, on Thursday. 

Jabbar’s younger brother, 24-year-old Abdur Jabbar, told the New York Times that his older brother’s mass murder wasn’t an exemplification of Islam. “What he did does not represent Islam. This is more some type of radicalization, not religion.”

FBI Reveals New Details About New Orleans Terrorist Attack Suspect, Says He Traveled Overseas

Officials said on Jan. 5 that they still believe Shamsud-Din Jabbar acted alone in the attack that killed 14 people on New Year’s Day.

1/5/2025

The FBI released more details on Jan. 5 about the man who carried out the New Year’s Day terrorist attack in New Orleans that left 14 people dead, saying the suspect had traveled to Egypt in 2023.

Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, traveled to Cairo, the capital of the country, from June 22 to July 3, 2023, before flying to Canada and returning to the United States days later, the FBI said in a press conference.

He also made at least two visits to New Orleans in October and November 2024, capturing a video on Bourbon Street—where he would carry out the attack—with Meta Platforms’ smart glasses, officials said. It’s not clear whether those trips to New Orleans or overseas were connected to the attack, Deputy Assistant Director Christopher Raia said at the press conference.

Early on Jan. 1, Jabbar, a former U.S. Army soldier from Houston, drove a pickup truck into a crowd of New Year revelers on Bourbon Street, in New Orleans’s historic French Quarter. Police fatally shot Jabbar during a firefight at the scene of the deadly crash.

“Meta glasses appear to look like regular glasses, but they allow a user to record videos and photos hand-free,” FBI Special Agent in Charge Lyonel Myrthil said on Jan. 5. “They also allow the user to potentially livestream through their video.”

Jabbar wore the glasses during his New Year’s Day attack, but they were not activated for a livestream, according to Myrthil. There was no indication that he was recording the attack at all, though the glasses were found on Jabbar.

Video footage showed Jabbar placing an improvised explosive device inside a cooler on Bourbon Street before the attack, during which he used a rented truck. The cooler was later moved by unidentified individuals, the FBI said.

“From what we’ve observed so far—what we’ve gathered through our investigation—is that [there are] unwitting individuals who move the cooler from location to location without knowledge of what is in the cooler,” Myrthil said on Jan. 5, adding that Jabbar placed another explosive device in a cooler about 30 minutes later.

Federal investigators so far believe Jabbar acted alone, authorities said on Jan. 5.

“All investigative details and evidence that we have now still support that Jabbar acted alone here in New Orleans,” Raia said. “We have not seen any indications of an accomplice in the United States, but we are still looking into potential associates in the U.S. and outside of our borders.”

Authorities said that Jabbar had sworn allegiance to the ISIS terrorist group. ISIS took control of portions of both Syria and Iraq about a decade ago, before U.S. forces largely ousted it. An ISIS flag was discovered on the hitch of the truck that Jabbar had used, officials said.

President Joe Biden confirmed that he would travel to New Orleans with First Lady Jill Biden on Jan. 6 in order to “grieve with the families and community members impacted by the tragic attack,” according to a White House statement.