What happened
A man identified as Shamsud-Din Jabbar drove a pickup truck into a crowd of New Year’s revelers in New Orleans’ French Quarter early Wednesday, killing at least 15 people and injuring about 30 others. Jabbar, a 42-year-old U.S.-born Army veteran from Texas, was killed in a shootout with police. The FBI said he had an Islamic State flag affixed to his rented truck during the attack, which was being treating “as an act of terrorism.” Investigators “do not believe that Jabbar was solely responsible,” the FBI’s Alethea Duncan said at a news conference.
Who said what
President Joe Biden said the perpetrator of the “heinous” and “despicable attack” was a U.S. citizen, and that according to the FBI, “mere hours before the attack, he posted videos on social media indicating that he’s inspired by ISIS, expressing the desire to kill.”
Jabbar swerved around police cars blocking Bourbon Street, “hell-bent on creating the carnage and damage that he did,” New Orleans Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said. Nail-filled explosive devices were found hidden in coolers in and near Jabbar’s truck, law enforcement sources said to The Washington Post.
Biden said authorities are trying to determine if the New Orleans attack was connected to the explosion of a rented Tesla Cybertruck a few hours later in front of a Trump hotel in Las Vegas, though “thus far, there’s nothing to report on that.” The driver was killed when gas canisters and firework mortars ignited in the back of the Cybertruck. The trucks used in both incidents were rented via the app Turo.
What next?
Officials postponed college football’s Sugar Bowl, scheduled for Wednesday in New Orleans, to this afternoon as police assessed the threat and searched for more explosive devices.