Authorities have confirmed finding bomb-making materials at the New Orleans home that US military veteran Shamsud-Din Jabbar rented before ramming a pickup truck into a crowd of New Year’s revelers, according to an FBI statement containing the most complete account yet of the attack.
Investigators recovered from Jabbar’s rental truck a transmitter intended to trigger the two bombs, the statement read, confirming prior media reporting.
It said authorities also found bomb-making materials at the New Orleans home Jabbar rented prior to the attack. Jabbar tried to burn the house down by setting a small fire in a hallway and placing accelerants to help spread it, the FBI said. The flames burned out before firefighters arrived.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms has determined Jabbar was the only person who would have had access to the residence on Mandeville Street in New Orleans when the fire was set.
Federal authorities searching Jabbar’s home in Houston found a workbench in the garage and hazardous materials believed to have been used to make explosive devices, according to law enforcement officials familiar with the search. The officials were not authorized to speak about the inquiry and spoke to the Associated Press on the condition of anonymity.
The FBI investigation also revealed that Jabbar purchased a cooler in Vidor, Texas, hours before the attack and gun oil from a store in Sulphur, Louisiana, the officials said. Authorities also determined Jabbar booked his rental of the pickup truck on 14 November, suggesting he may have been plotting the attack for more than six weeks.
Authorities say 14 people were killed and about 30 were injured in the the attack carried out by Jabbar, a former army soldier who posted social media messages saying he was inspired by the Islamic State militant group.
Jabbar, 42, was shot dead in a firefight with police at the scene of the deadly crash on Bourbon Street, famous worldwide for its festive atmosphere in New Orleans’ historic French Quarter.
Authorities found crude bombs that had been planted in the neighborhood in an apparent attempt to cause more carnage. Two improvised explosive devices left in coolers several blocks apart were rendered safe at the scene, officials said. Other devices were determined to be not functional.
Authorities were still investigating Jabbar’s motives and how he carried out the attack. They say he exited the crashed truck wearing a ballistic vest and helmet and fired at police, wounding at least two officers before he was fatally shot by officers returning fire.
New Orleans police declined to say how many shots were fired by Jabbar and police, and whether any bystanders may have been hit, citing the active investigation.
Stella Cziment, who heads the city’s Office of the Independent Police Monitor, said investigators are working to account for “every single bullet that was fired” and whether any of them struck bystanders.
“Even if it went into a building, a door or the side of a car, they’re going to try to locate that bullet,” Cziment told AP.
The FBI continued to hunt for clues about Jabbar after the agency concluded he was not aided by anyone else in the attack, which killed an 18-year-old aspiring nurse, a single mother, a father of two and a former Princeton University football star, among others.
The FBI said that hours before the attack, Jabbar posted five videos on his Facebook account in which he proclaimed his support for the Islamic State group and previewed the violence that he would soon unleash in the French Quarter.
It was the deadliest IS-inspired assault on US soil in years, laying bare what federal officials have warned is a resurgent international terrorism threat.
Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh said that the army’s criminal investigative division was working with the FBI to provide records and look into how Jabbar could have been radicalized. Jabbar enlisted in the army in 2007, transferred to the army reserve in 2015 and left military service in 2020 with the rank of staff sergeant.