An Army veteran driving a pickup truck that bore the flag of the Islamic State group wrought carnage on New Orleans’ raucous New Year’s celebration, killing 15 people as he steered around a police blockade and slammed into revelers before being shot dead by police.
The FBI said it is investigating the attack early Wednesday in the city's famed French Quarter as a terrorist act and does not believe the driver acted alone.
Investigators found multiple improvised explosive devices, including two pipe bombs that were concealed within coolers and wired for remote detonation, according to a Louisiana State Police intelligence bulletin obtained by the Associated Press.
The bulletin, relying on information gathered soon after the attack, also said surveillance footage showed three men and a woman placing one of the devices, but federal officials did not immediately confirm that detail and it wasn’t clear who the individuals in the video were or what connection they may have had to the attack.
The rampage turned festive Bourbon Street into macabre mayhem, injuring more than 30 people. Pedestrians fled to safety inside nightclubs and restaurants. One man watched in horror as authorities placed a tarp over his friend’s body after she was hit and thrown some 30 feet.
A college football playoff game between Georgia and Notre Dame at the nearby Superdome was postponed until Thursday. A Georgia student was critically hurt in the attack, university president Jere Morehead said.
“This is not just an act of terrorism. This is evil,” New Orleans Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said. The driver “defeated” safety measures in place to protect pedestrians, she said, and was “hell-bent on creating the carnage and the damage that he did.”
The FBI identified the driver as Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, a U.S. citizen and Army veteran from Texas, and said it is working to determine Jabbar's potential associations and affiliations with terrorist organizations.
“We do not believe that Jabbar was solely responsible," Alethea Duncan, an assistant special agent in charge of the FBI’s New Orleans field office, said at a news conference.
Jabbar drove a rented pickup truck onto a sidewalk, going around a police car that was positioned to block vehicular traffic, authorities said. A barrier system meant to prevent vehicle attacks was undergoing repairs in preparation for the Super Bowl, which is scheduled to take place there in February.
Police killed Jabbar after he exited the truck and opened fire on responding officers, Kirkpatrick said. Three officers returned fire. Two officers were shot and are in stable condition, police said. At least 33 other people were hurt in the attack.
A photo circulated among law enforcement officials showed a bearded Jabbar wearing camouflage next to the truck after he was killed. The intelligence bulletin obtained by the AP said he was wearing a ballistic vest and helmet. The flag of the Islamic State group was on the truck's trailer hitch, the FBI said.
Investigators recovered a handgun and AR-style rifle, according to a law enforcement official. The official was not authorized to discuss details of the investigation publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Zion Parsons, 18, of Gulfport, Mississippi, said he saw the truck "barreling through, throwing people like in a movie scene, throwing people into the air.”
Parsons said he heard gunshots and ran through a gruesome aftermath of bleeding and maimed victims.
“Bodies, bodies all up and down the street, everybody screaming and hollering,” Parsons told the AP. “People crying on the floor, like brain matter all over the ground.”
His friend, 18-year-old aspiring nurse Nikyra Dedeaux, was among the people killed.
Parsons said he called hospitals and the morgue, searching for answers about the location of Dedeaux's body. He later called her family to deliver the grim news.
“I hadn’t had time to cry up until I called her mother and she asked me, ‘Where’s my baby,’” Parsons said. “That broke me.”
Hours after the attack, several coroner’s office vans were parked on the corner of Bourbon and Canal streets, cordoned off by police tape with crowds of dazed tourists standing around, some trying to navigate their luggage through the labyrinth of blockades.
“We looked out our front door and saw caution tape and dead silence and it’s eerie,” said Tessa Cundiff, an Indiana native who moved to the French Quarter a few years ago. "This is not what we fell in love with, it’s sad.”
Elsewhere, life went on as normal in the city known to some for a motto that translates to “let the good times roll.”
Close to where the truck came to rest, some people were talking about the attack while others dressed in Georgia gear talked football. At a cafe a block away, people crowded in for breakfast as upbeat pop music played. Two blocks away, people drank at a bar, seemingly as if nothing happened.
"We recognize that there are tourists around us, and we urge all to avoid the French Quarter as this is an active investigation," Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry said. “We understand the concerns of the community and want to reassure everyone that the safety of the French Quarter and the city of New Orleans remains our top priority.”
President Joe Biden, speaking to reporters in Delaware, said he felt “anger and frustration” over the attack but that he would refrain from further comment until more is known.
“My heart goes out to the victims and their families who were simply trying to celebrate the holiday,” Biden said in a statement. “There is no justification for violence of any kind, and we will not tolerate any attack on any of our nation’s communities.”
The attack is the latest example of a vehicle being used as a weapon to carry out mass violence, a trend that has alarmed law enforcement officials and that can be difficult to protect against.
If confirmed as IS-inspired, the attack would represent the deadliest such assault on U.S. soil in years. FBI officials have repeatedly warned about an elevated international terrorism threat due to the Israel-Hamas war.
In the last year, the FBI has disrupted other potential attacks inspired by the militant group, including in October when agents arrested an Afghan man in Oklahoma accused of plotting an Election Day attack targeting large crowds.
