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BOURBON ST TERROR
Shamsud Din Jabbar named as suspect who killed 10 & injured 30 as ISIS flag on truck & ‘bombs’ in French Quarter probed
At least one improvised explosive device has been found in the area, according to the FBI
A DRIVER who killed 10 and wounded 30 when he plowed his vehicle into New Year's revelers in New Orleans has been identified.
Shamsud Din Jabbar was named by the FBI as the driver who rammed a white pickup truck at high speed into a crowd of pedestrians in the city's packed French Quarter district at 3:15 am along Bourbon Street.
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He was killed in a firefight with police following the sickening attack which left two officers wounded.
Din Jabbar has been formally identified as the driver behind the horror slaughter early on New Year's Day.
Eyewitnesses said Din Jabbar got out of the truck wearing full body armor and wielding an assault rifle.
He is a 42-year-old American citizen born and raised in Texas who formerly served in the US Army.
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It comes as...
- FBI investigating ramming as an 'act of terrorism'
- Driver went around barricades to hit crowds
- Suspect has been shot dead by police
- Ten dead, a further 35 injured
- Two police officers shot by suspect in hospital
- Trump says attack 'act of pure evil'
The first victim in Wednesday morning's horrifying attack has been identified as an 18-year-old girl.
Nikyra Cheyenne Dedeaux from Gulfport, Mississippi had traveled to New Orleans with her cousin and a friend to celebrate the New Year.
Most read in The US Sun
Her grieving mother, Melissa Dedeaux, confirmed the tragic news to .
"I just want to see my baby," she said.
"She was the sweetest person. She would give you anything, anything."
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Two of the other victims have been named as 37-year-old Reggie Hunter and Tiger Bech, 27.
At least one improvised explosive device had been found in the area, according to the FBI.
Moment ticketless New Year's Eve revellers storm barriers to gain entry to London fireworks
Multiple devices were found in an ice chest in the pickup truck, a law enforcement source told .
At least two IEDs found in the French Quarter have been rendered safe, while more in the area are being investigated.
Security services are investigating a video purportedly showing three men and one woman planting bombs before the attack.
It has not been confirmed whether any of the men in the video is Din Jabbar.
Police say the attack was deliberate and was not a DUI, and the FBI is treating it as an act of terrorism.
A State of Emergency has been declared in Louisiana following the deadly terror attack, with a major college football game scheduled to go ahead on Wednesday has been postponed.
Horrific pictures from the scene show the truck with its hood buckled from the force of the impact.
A black ISIS flag was on the back of the truck when the attack happened, law enforcement sources confirmed at a press conference on Wednesday afternoon.
Investigators are working to determine whether Din Jabbar had a connection to ISIS and whether he was working alone, law enforcement sources told .
The FBI does not believe Din Jabbar was "solely responsible" for the attack and has asked for the public's help in tracking down associates, a regional chief said at the same press conference.
has reported that some four or five others are suspected of having helped him carry out the deadly attack.
Louisiana's Governor Jeff Landry has ordered the head of the state's National Guard to mobilize a military police force to assist the New Orleans Police Department and the FBI with the investigation.
Officials are still working on information about Din Jabbar's background and potential travel history, senior law enforcement sources told .
He rented the truck in Texas through Turo - a carsharing app also used to rent a Cybertruck that exploded outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas on Wednesday morning.
There is no suggestion yet that the incidents were linked.
Who was Shamsud Din Jabbar?
THE man police suspect drove his car into a crowd of New Year's Eve revellers in New Orleans was 42-year-old Shamsud Din Jabbar.
He is believed to have killed 10 people in what authorities are investigating as a terrorist attack before cops shot him dead.
More details are emerging about the US Army veteran who was born and lived in Texas.
Jabbar had a criminal history after being arrested in Katy, Texas, in 2002 for misdemeanor theft.
He was also arrested in 2005 for driving without an invalid license.
Jabbar is a dad to two daughters and had two previous wives.
It's unclear when his second divorce happened, but court files show that a restraining order was granted against him in 2020.
The New York Times reported a court document that the suspect filed in August 2022 as part of a divorce proceeding said he worked at the accounting firm Deloitte and made about $120,000 a year.
A ISIS flag was found in the truck by cops following the attack after it had been attached to a pole on the truck's trailer hitch, the FBI said.
Jabbar had only converted to Islam within the last year and was "being all crazy" the new husband of his ex-wife said, the New York Times reports.
Grim unverified footage shared on X shows motionless bodies scattered on the floor, some of them bloodied, while loud bangs that are possible gunshots are heard.
An eyewitness described the surreal moment the pickup truck's driver "punched the gas and mowed over the barricade and hit a petty cab passenger.
The unnamed woman told , "And there were just bodies and the screams. You can't un-think about, you know, un-hear that. It was chaos."
NewsNation has reported that the bodies of the dead remained on Bourbon Street on Wednesday afternoon.
Shaken tourists have claimed that hotels are putting sheets up in windows to shield them from the horror.
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New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell described the killings as a "terrorist attack" while the city’s police chief said the act was intentional.
Liz Murrill, Louisiana's attorney general, said in a post on X she was praying for the victims of what she called "the brutal intentional slaughter of innocent people celebrating the New Year in New Orleans."
"This morning, an individual drove a car into a crowd of people on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, killing a number of people and injuring dozens of others," the FBI said in a statement.
"The subject then engaged with local law enforcement and is now deceased.
"The FBI is the lead investigative agency, and we are working with our partners to investigate this as an act of terrorism."
He was hellbent on creating the carnage and the damage that he did. It was very intentional behavior. This man was trying to run over as many people as he could.
Anne Kirkpatrick
Investigators are still putting together a picture of Din Jabbar.
Police records show he was arrested twice in Texas for minor crimes, reports the .
In 2002, he was arrested in the town of Katy for misdemeanor theft.
Three years later, he was arrested in Beaumont for driving with an invalid license, also a misdemeanor.
He reportedly enlisted in the US Navy in August 2004 but was discharged one month later from the delayed entry program.
Din Jabbar later served in the US Army from 2006 to 2015 and was deployed to Afghanistan in 2009.
The FBI's Houston, Texas branch carried out investigations in the north of the city it what it says was activity "related to this morning's New Orleans attack."
JOY TO TRAGEDY
Bourbon Street, known worldwide as one of the largest destinations for New Year’s Eve parties, was packed at the time as crowds prepared for the planned Sugar Bowl college football playoff game at the nearby Superdome later in the day.
The game between Notre Dame and the University of Georgia was postponed on Wednesday afternoon after Police Commissioner Anne Kirkpatrick had earlier said the game would go ahead as scheduled.
Reports say a University of Georgia student was critically wounded in the attack.
The ramming attack occurred near the intersection of Bourbon Street and Canal Street.
It comes just weeks before New Orleans is due to host the Super Bowl at the Caesars Superdome on February 9.
Security chiefs have locked down the Superdome, just a six-minute drive from the scene of the attack, following Wednesday morning's tragedy.
Addressing reporters earlier on Wednesday, Kirkpatrick said the driver deliberately went around barriers and drove intentionally into pedestrians in a clear attempt to maim and kill as many people as possible.
“Last night we had over 300 officers out here," she said.
"And because of the intentional mindset of this perpetrator who went around our barricades in order to conduct this, he was hellbent on creating the carnage and the damage that he did."
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She added, "This man was trying to run over as many people as he could. It was not a DUI situation."
A New Orleans city council member said the barricades normally keeping vehicles away from Bourbon Street were under repair at the time of the attack, which allowed the pickup truck to enter the pedestrianized area.
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