New Orleans attack: Terror suspect used bomb materials never seen in US as police probe how he got them
Police investigated the materials used in the devices near the Bourbon Street attack
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Your support makes all the difference.The terror suspect in the New Orleans rampage that killed 14 people and injured dozens reportedly used materials to make explosives that have never been used in a U.S. attack.
Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a 42-year-old U.S. citizen from Texas, used an extremely rare explosive compound that had never been seen before in any incidents in the U.S. or Europe, NBC News reported.
Jabbar planned to detonate two explosives that he had placed on Bourbon Street, FBI and ATF officials said in a joint statement Friday. He intended to use a transmitter, which was found in his vehicle, to ignite the bombs but ultimately did not.
It’s not immediately clear how or where he learned to make such an explosive. It’s yet another question for the FBI, which is also reportedly looking into Jabbar’s travel, including a trip to Egypt.
The federal agency was also trying to determine whether he became radicalized during his trip, ABC News reported.
Authorities recovered an ISIS flag from inside his vehicle.
“This next most important phase of the investigation is to find out how that radicalization happened and if it happened on that trip,” Orleans Parish District Attorney Jason Williams told the network.
Woman shot in New Orleans terror attack describes how her mom helped save her over the phone
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British man among 14 killed in New Year’s Day New Orleans vehicle attack
Heartbreaking comparison of New Orleans before and after terror attack
FBI seize vehicle in New Orleans attack
The FBI Houston office announced Saturday that it had seized the vehicle that Shamsud-Din Jabbar used to plow into a crowd on Bourbon Street, killing 14 and injuring dozens more.
“On Jan. 1, after obtaining a court authorized warrant, FBI Houston’s SWAT and Bomb Techs, w/support from @HCSOTexas, safely cleared the suspect’s north Harris County house of any potential threats to safety of nearby residents. FBI Houston’s ERT then began its search of the home,” the FBI wrote in a statement on X.
The agency “completed its thorough, hours-long search of the suspect’s house on Jan. 2, secured it, and released the property to the owner that morning. On Jan. 3, FBI Houston returned to the area only to seize a vehicle near the residence in furtherance of the ongoing investigation.”
Jabbar was a U.S. citizen from Texas, authorities have said.
Texas Lt. Gov. Gov. Dan Patrick told Fox 26 that the suspect rented the pickup truck on Monday and had been driving the rented vehicle in Houston before heading to New Orleans.
How much of a threat does ISIS pose to the US?
The New Year’s Day attack in New Orleans that killed at least 14 people and injured 30 more has reignited fears about the terror threat posed by ISIS in the U.S. following years of relative quiet.
Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a 42-year-old U.S. Army veteran, has been named by authorities as the suspect. He carried an ISIS flag on the vehicle used to mow down pedestrians.
Addressing the nation following the attack, President Joe Biden said Jabbar posted videos to social media “indicating he was inspired by ISIS, expressing a desire to kill.”
But how much of a threat does the extremist Islamist militant group pose to Americans today?
The New Orleans attacker was inspired by ISIS. Is the group a threat in the US?
Despite the New Orleans attack, experts don’t see an elevated threat from ISIS — instead, it’s a steady threat that never left, Richard Hall writes.
‘The screams, you can’t unhear that’
The city of New Orleans is in shock. Bartenders, musicians and hospitality workers who keep the city running are grieving and nervous. French Quarter residents packed into the historic neighborhood are navigating life in an active crime scene.
A suspected terrorist attack has shaken a city that was primed to celebrate the new year with the weeks-long Carnival season leading up to Mardi Gras — with the Super Bowl crammed right in the middle of it — that’s scheduled to kick off within days. But first, thousands of people in town for the Sugar Bowl joined locals celebrating New Year’s Eve into the early morning hours Wednesday.
The celebrations ended with a U.S. Army veteran plowing a pickup truck waving an ISIS flag into a busy intersection on Bourbon Street, killing at least 14 people and injuring more than two dozen others.
After jerking his truck around a barrier to race down a sidewalk and into a crowd in the street, Shamsud Din Jabbar finally crashed into construction equipment then opened fire with an AR-style rifle before he was fatally shot by police shortly after 3:15 a.m. Wednesday.
Alex Woodward has this in-depth look at the tragedy.
‘You can’t unhear’ the screams: New Orleans revelers end horror night in shock
French Quarter residents and workers are navigating life in a crime scene, job uncertainty and trauma after a New Year’s Day attack, Alex Woodward reports
‘I was in straight panic mode’: How a mother saved her daughter from New Orleans attack
An Alabama woman wounded in Wednesday’s New Orleans truck attack said her mother’s quick thinking during an emergency phone call helped save her life.
Alexis Scott-Windham, 23, of Mobile, Alabama, was in the French Quarter the evening before the attack to celebrate New Year’s Eve with friends.
She was one of scores of people that attacker Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, hit with a rented truck in the early hours of New Year’s Day, a massacre which ultimately killed 14 people.
Scott-Windham, after the truck clipped her, was then hit in the foot during gunfire between Jabbar and police that followed the vehicle attack
The 23-year-old looked around and saw a dead body next to her, and noticed her foot was “leaking” blood, she told NBC News.
As she waited for an ambulance, her friends called her mother, who advised putting a tourniquet around Scott-Windham’s ankle to choke off the blood flow.
Woman shot in New Orleans attack describes how phone call to mom helped save her
23-year-old from Alabama was hit in truck attack then shot – but survived the ordeal
New Orleans is installing new barriers — but they don’t protect against vehicles moving at moderate speeds: report
After a suspect drove a rented Ford F-150 into a crowd on Bourbon Street, killing 14 and leaving dozens of others injured, the city of New Orleans is now installing street barriers — but they can only withstand 10-mph impacts, according to a report.
An engineering analysis, obtained by Reuters, found that a vehicle like the truck used in the attack could enter Bourbon Street at speeds ranging from 12 to 70 mph. But these new barriers — called “bollards” — cannot withstand impacts at those speeds, according to the outlet.
The bollards are set to be put in place on Bourbon Street in time for the Super Bowl, which New Orleans is hosting on February 9. But they were removed for repairs, allowing the suspect to reportedly drive onto the subject, hitting a crowd of innocent people.
The deadly attack is unlikely to impact the city’s tourism, experts predict
Although some have wondered if New Orleans, a hotspot for tourism, would see a decline in visitors after the deadly New Year’s Day attack, experts say the city has nothing to worry about.
Hours after the attack, New Orleans was set to host the Allstate Sugar Bowl. Next month, it will host the Super Bowl. In March, it will host its annual Mardi Gras festivities.
“Understanding that everyone has different ideas of what’s safe, it would be a shame to cancel plans to visit the Big Easy over the terror attack,” Clint Henderson, managing editor at The Points Guy, told Fox Business.
The suspect plowed into a crowd on Bourbon Street, a popular drinking destination.
“Already Bourbon Street has reopened and the city is relying on tourism dollars for the next big events in the city including Mardi Gras, Super Bowl and Jazz Fest,” Henderson told the outlet. “The best thing you can do to support the community is to keep your plans to visit.”
Gilbert Ott, head of partnerships at reward travel platform godsavethepoints.com predicted that New Orleans, and other cities impacted by disaster, are likely to “bounce back very quickly when incidents happen.”
“I know the international community, thanks to the excitement New Orleans attracts around the world, will rally around this historic city as it has before,” Ott told the outlet. “Passengers flying to New Orleans tend to book their travel a few weeks to months in advance — for major events like the Super Bowl, or events like bachelor and bachelorette parties or 40th birthday celebrations. They’re still coming, as they should.”
WATCH: Heartbreaking comparison of New Orleans before and after terror attack
Woman shot in New Orleans terror attack describes how her mom helped save her over the phone
An Alabama woman wounded in Wednesday’s New Orleans truck attack said her mother’s quick thinking during an emergency phone call helped save her life.
Alexis Scott-Windham, 23, of Mobile, Alabama, was in the French Quarter the evening before the attack to celebrate New Year’s Eve with friends. She was one of scores of people that attacker Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, hit with a rented truck in the early hours of New Year’s Day, a massacre which ultimately killed 14 people.
Scott-Windham, after the truck clipped her, was then hit in the foot during gunfire between Jabbar and police that followed the vehicle attack
The 23-year-old looked around and saw a dead body next to her, and noticed her foot was “leaking” blood, she told NBC News. As she waited for an ambulance, her friends called her mother, who advised putting a tourniquet around Scott-Windham’s ankle to choke off the blood flow. “So I just told my daughter’s friend to just tie her other sock around her leg so she wouldn’t bleed so heavy,” Tryphena Scott-Windham told the broadcaster, saying she’d seen people use such treatments on TV. “I just blurted that out. I was in straight panic mode.”
“I’m just sitting there with my homemade tourniquet,” her daugter added in an interview with NBC. “I was just thankful. I was blessed. I was just grateful. I was just like, ‘Lord, I’m just glad I made it to the hospital, Lord, because it could have been way worse.’”
Read the full story:
Woman shot in New Orleans attack describes how phone call to mom helped save her
23-year-old from Alabama was hit in truck attack then shot – but survived the ordeal
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