New Orleans attacker Shamsud-Din Jabbar wore smart glasses to film the city’s French Quarter as he cycled, in the weeks before his deadly atrocity, the FBI has said.
Jabbar made two trips to the southern city in October and November last year, according to the bureau.
The US citizen, from Houston, Texas, killed 14 people, including Briton Edward Pettifer, when he rammed his rental white pick-up truck into a crowd celebrating New Year in Bourbon Street in the historic French Quarter early on 1 January.
The 42-year-old former US army soldier was then killed in a shootout with police at the scene of the deadly crash.
Shamsud-Din Jabbar. Pic: FBI
In a news conference on Sunday, the fourteenth victim was confirmed by Louisiana governor Jeff Landry as LaTasha Polk. He said she worked as a nursing assistant and was the mother of a 14-year-old.
It comes after a vigil was held on Saturday evening for those who died, with relatives among those who gathered on Bourbon Street.
The FBI said Jabbar’s first trip, when he stayed at a rental home, started on 30 October, and lasted at least two days, and he was also in New Orleans on 10 November.
It said he made the cycling video on his first visit using the hands-free glasses, which were developed by US tech giant Meta and are capable of recording or livestreaming. They are designed to look like normal glasses and come in a range of styles.
The attacker, on a bike, filmed the French Quarter using hands-free glasses last October. Pic: FBI
Jabbar was wearing a pair of Meta smart glasses while he carried out the 1 January attack, but he did not activate them to livestream his actions that day.
Around 30 other people were injured in the incident. Thirteen remain in hospital, with eight people in intensive care.
What happened in the hours before the attack?
The FBI said Jabbar was seen on 31 December at one of several gun shops he visited in Texas leading up to the ramming attack. He then stopped at a business in Texas where he bought one of the ice boxes he used to hide an improvised explosive device (IED).
He entered Louisiana around 2.30pm local time (8.30pm UK time) on 31 December – hours before the attack – and his rented vehicle was later seen in the city of Gonzales, Louisiana, about 9pm that evening.
Jabbar with one of his IEDs in New Orleans. Pic: FBI
By 10pm, home camera footage showed Jabbar unloading the white pick-up truck in New Orleans outside his rental home in Mandeville Street.
The FBI said that just under three hours later, at 12.41am on 1 January, Jabbar parked the truck and walked to the junction of Royal and Governor Nichols Street.
It said Jabbar placed one IED in a cooler box at the junction of Bourbon Street and St Peter Street at 1.53am on New Year’s Day.
A person on Bourbon Street, not believed to be involved in the attack, dragged the cooler about a block where authorities found it after the attack.
A second IED was placed by Jabbar in a “bucket-type cooler” at 2.20am at the junction of Bourbon Street and Toulouse Street.
At 3.15am, Jabbar carried out his deadly attack, where he “used the truck as a lethal weapon”, said the FBI.
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Vigil for New Orleans attack victims
Two IEDs left in coolers several blocks apart were made safe.
Shortly after 5am, a fire was reported at the Mandeville Street rental home in New Orleans, where emergency services found explosive devices.
The FBI believes Jabbar acted alone.
“We have not seen any indications of an accomplice in the United States, but we are still looking into potential associates in the US and outside of our borders,” Deputy Assistant Director Christopher Raia said at the news conference.
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How New Orleans attack unfolded
Read more:
Suspect’s half-brother speaks out
How the atrocity unfolded
Jabbar also travelled to Cairo, Egypt, between 22 June and 3 July 2023, and a few days later on 10 July he flew to Ontario, Canada, before returning to the US on 13 July.
But it was not yet clear whether those trips were connected to the truck attack.
“Our agents are getting answers to where he went, who he went with and how those trips may or may not tie into his actions here,” said Lyonel Myrthil, FBI special agent in charge of the New Orleans Field Office.
Jabbar proclaimed his support for the Islamic State militant group in online videos posted hours before he struck.
‘Very rare explosive compound’
He used a very rare explosive compound which was found in the two functional IEDs he placed in New Orleans and authorities are investigating how he knew how to make this homemade explosive, two officials close to the investigation told Sky’s partner network NBC News.
The explosive has never been used in a US terror attack or incident nor has it been used in any European terror attack, said the officials.
