The FBI provided an update Tuesday on the New Year’s Day attack in New Orleans, revealing new information about the attacker’s online search history as well as releasing a photo showing him walking in the city just weeks before the rampage that killed 14 people.
The suspect, Shamsud-Din Jabbar, used the internet to search how to access a balcony on Bourbon Street as well as information about Mardi Gras and several shootings in New Orleans prior to the attack, the FBI said.
Hours before the plowing a pickup truck into a crowd of New Year’s revelers on Bourbon Street, Jabbar searched for information about the vehicle that intentionally rammed into a crowded Christmas market in Germany 10 days before the New Orleans attack, according to the FBI.
FBI
Fourteen people died in the attack plus Jabbar, who was killed in a shootout with New Orleans police. The FBI said Tuesday that at least 57 people were physically injured in the attack.
Jabbar became a more devout Muslim in 2022, and during this time, he began isolating himself from society, according to the FBI. Federal officials have called the attack an act of terrorism, saying that Jabbar was an Army veteran who had declared support for ISIS.
The FBI on Tuesday also released more details on Jabbar’s visits to New Orleans before the attack. On Nov. 10 Jabbar took a train from Houston to New Orleans and returned to Texas that evening on a bus. The FBI released an image showing Jabbar walking with a backpack in New Orleans on that date.
Jabbar looked at an apartment for rent on Orleans Street and applied to rent the apartment days later but later told the landlord he changed his mind.