What to Know About the New Orleans Truck Attack

In the early morning hours of New Year’s Day, a man intentionally drove a pickup truck into a crowd on Bourbon Street in New Orleans. The attack left 15 people (including the driver) dead and dozens more injured, according to officials.

The FBI has identified the man driving the car as Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a U.S. citizen and Army veteran who lived in Texas. In a press conference, FBI special agent Alethea Duncan said that Jabbar exited the truck after crashing it and began shooting at police officers, who returned fire. Jabbar was declared dead at the scene.

Bourbon Street, a lively tourist destination, usually has bollards in place to keep pedestrians from getting hit by vehicles. However, the bollards had been removed for repairs ahead of the Super Bowl next month. In their place were barriers and patrol cars, which Jabbar was able to drive around. “We had a car there, we had barriers there, we had officers there, and he still got around,” New Orleans Police Department superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said. “We did indeed have a plan, but the terrorist defeated it.”

Special agent Duncan told reporters on Wednesday that investigators “do not believe that Jabbar was solely responsible” for the attack and that they are looking at a “range of suspects.” In an address from Camp David, President Biden said that hours before the attack, Jabbar had posted videos in which he claimed to be “inspired by ISIS.” CBS News reported that neither ISIS nor any other foreign terror organization has claimed responsibility for the attack.

President Biden also noted that the FBI is looking into any connection the New Orleans attack may have to the Cybertruck that exploded in Las Vegas outside of the Trump Hotel on Wednesday, which left one person dead. Sheriff Kevin McMahill of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said they believed that attack to be “an isolated incident” but had not ruled anything out.