The FBI reported that the person responsible for the deadly massacre in New Orleans acted alone, without conspirators. He confirmed that it was “an act of terrorism.”
A United States Army veteran who He rammed a truck into a crowd who was celebrating the New Year in the city of New Orleans acted alone, the FBI reported Thursday, reversing what it said the day before that the man had probably worked with others to carry out the deadly attack, which authorities describe as a act of terrorism inspired by the Islamic State group.
The FBI also revealed that the driver, Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a U.S. citizen from Texas, posted five videos on his Facebook account in the hours before the attack in which he aligned himself with the Islamic State group and told viewers that He had joined the militant group before last summer.
“This was an act of terrorism. It was premeditated and an evil act,” said Christopher Raia, deputy director of the FBI's counterterrorism division.
The attack left 14 people dead, including an 18-year-old girl who wanted to be a nurse. Authorities had initially said the death toll was 15 people, which included Jabbar, who was fatally shot in a confrontation with police.
Officials had said Wednesday they were looking for potential additional suspects in the attack, which occurred when Jabbar went around a police blockade and rammed his truck into people.
But Raia said the current assessment is that he acted alone, without conspirators.
Authorities recovered a black Islamic State flag in the van, and U.S. President Joe Biden said the FBI informed him that Jabbar had posted videos on social media hours before the massacre that indicated he was motivated by the militant group and expressed his desire to kill.
Jabbar was shot dead by police and the FBI said Wednesday it believed he had not acted alone. Investigators found weapons and what appeared to be an improvised explosive device in the vehicle, along with other explosive devices elsewhere in the city's French Quarter.
Officers fanned out to execute search warrants and spent hours at a Houston metropolitan area home believed to be connected to the investigation. But as of Thursday morning, no additional arrests were known to have been made, and it was unclear whether the FBI was still searching for more suspects.
The massacre turned festive Bourbon Street into a macabre scene of mutilated victims, bloodied bodies and pedestrians fleeing to nightclubs and restaurants for safety. In addition to the dead, dozens of people were injured.
Zion Parsons, 18, of Gulfport, Mississippi, said he saw the truck “ramming, throwing people into the air like a movie scene.”
“Bodies, bodies all over the street, everyone screaming,” said Parsons, whose friend Nikyra Dedeaux was among those who lost their lives.
But by Thursday, a city still in shock was slowly returning to normal. Authorities finished processing the scene in the morning, removing the last bodies, and Bourbon Street is scheduled to reopen in the coming hours, according to an official familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity to The Associated. Press.
The college football playoff game between Notre Dame and Georgia, initially scheduled for Wednesday night and postponed by one day in the interest of national security, remained scheduled for Thursday. And the city planned to host the Super Bowl next month.
Federal officials were investigating Jabbar's possible associations with any terrorist organizations as they searched for additional leads in what is believed to be the deadliest Islamic State-inspired assault on U.S. soil in years.
Meanwhile, local officials faced more questions about security protocols in the city before the attack, the latest example of a vehicle being used as a weapon to carry out mass violence.
Jabbar drove a rented pickup truck onto a sidewalk, around a police car that was positioned to block vehicles, authorities said. A barrier system intended to prevent vehicular attacks was under repair ahead of the Super Bowl.
Jabbar was killed by police after he got out of the SUV and began shooting at responding officers, New Orleans Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said. Three police officers returned fire. Two were injured and are in stable condition.
The driver “overcame” safety measures put in place at the scene to protect pedestrians, Kirkpatrick said, and was “determined to create the massacre and the damage that he did.”
“This is not just an act of terrorism. “This is evil,” he added.