10 killed, 30 injured in New Orleans ‘terrorist attack’ on New Year’s Day
Jan 1, 2025, 6:14 AM | Updated: 12:34 pm
Emergency services attend the scene after a vehicle drove into a crowd on New Orleans' Canal and Bourbon Street, Wednesday Jan. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
(AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
UPDATE: The suspect in the New Orleans crash and shooting is dead after a firefight with police, law enforcement officials told AP. The FBI later identified the man as 42-year-old Shamsud Din Jabbar, a U.S.-born citizen who resides in Texas.
Additionally, an Islamic State group flag was found inside the vehicle he used to ram through the crowd, which appeared to be a rented Ford pickup truck.
Assistant Special Agent in charge of the investigation, Alethea Duncan said the FBI is still working to ensure there is “no further threat,” and trace down any possible leads to reveal any counterparts or further affiliations with terrorist organizations.
“We do not believe that Jabbar was solely responsible,” Alethea Duncan, FBI assistant special agent in charge, said at a news conference Wednesday afternoon. “We are aggressively running down every lead, including those of his known associates.”
Duncan said weapons and potential improvised explosive devices were located in the suspect’s vehicle. Other IEDs were located in the French Quarter.
“As of now, two IEDs have been found and rendered safe,” Duncan said. “The FBI special agent bomb technicians, as well as our local law enforcement partners, have been working to determine if any of these devices are viable, and they will work to render those devices safe.”
Duncan said the FBI is requesting help from the public and asked for anyone who had contact with Jabbar to contact the FBI. Anyone else with information, photos or videos was encouraged to send via a tip line created specifically for the New Orleans incident.
The original story published is as follows:
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Ten people were killed and 30 injured after a vehicle drove into a crowd on New Orleans’s Canal and Bourbon Street.
New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell is calling the New Year’s Day mass casualty incident a “terrorist attack.”
The FBI is investigating what occurred early Wednesday, when a vehicle drove into a crowd on New Orleans’ famed Canal and Bourbon Street in the first hours of New Year’s Day.
Alethea Duncan, an assistant special agent in charge of the FBI’s New Orleans field office, said officials were investigating the discovery of at least one suspected improvised explosive device at the scene.
Earlier, the New Orleans Police Department said it was responding to a mass casualty incident Wednesday that included fatalities. NOLA Ready advised people to stay away from the area.
It said the injured had been taken to five local hospitals.
The incident came at 3:15 a.m. toward the end of New Year’s celebrations in New Orleans and hours before the kickoff of the Sugar Bowl, a college football quarterfinal held in the city’s Superdome, with thousands expected to be in attendance.
Earlier this week, the police department said security would be beefed up ahead of New Year’s Day celebrations. The department said it would be staffed at 100% capacity with 300 officers from partner agencies and a strong presence of marked and unmarked vehicles.
