The perpetrator of the terrorist attack in New Orleans was Chamseddine Jabbar He was radicalized by ISIS online “Within weeks,” according to FBI Director Christopher Wray.
Jabbar killed 14 civilians when he plowed a Ford F-150 rental truck into a crowd celebrating the New Year on Bourbon Street around 3:15 a.m. on Jan. 1. He then started shooting at the police, who returned fire, killing the attacker.
“It appears to have been inspired, from a distance, by ISIS,” Wray said. “It is, in many ways, the most challenging type of terrorist threat that we face.” “60 minutes” In a wide-ranging interview that aired on Sunday. “You're talking about guys like this, who don't radicalize in years but in weeks, and whose method of attack is still very lethal but fairly crude. And if you think about that old adage about connecting the dots, there's not a lot of dots out there to connect “And there is so little time to connect them.”
The FBI noted earlier this month that Jabbar, 42, traveled to Cairo, Egypt, from June 22 to July 3, 2023, and then returned to the United States. On a separate trip on July 10, 2023, he traveled to Ontario, Canada, and returned. To the United States after a few days.
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Shams al-Din Jabbar appears in an undated photo released by the FBI after he was attacked on Bourbon Street in New Orleans with a pickup truck and died in a shootout with officers who responded to the attack. (FBI)
Records show the Texas native was a twice-divorced Army veteran who, despite a lucrative job at a large consulting firm, had a history of financial difficulties and defaulted on child support payments.
Before the New Orleans attack, he visited the city twice – once in October and again in November. He used Meta smart glasses to take videos of his surroundings while riding a bike through the French Quarter months before the deadly attack.
Christopher Wray has announced his resignation as Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) as President-elect Donald Trump takes office for his second term. (Kevin Deitch/Getty Images)
On December 31, Jabbar rented a Ford truck in Houston and thereafter He drove her to New Orleans, Where he logged into AirBnb. Authorities later found bomb-making materials and the remains of a fire at the property, saying Jabbar likely tried to cover up his crime by trying to burn evidence at the rented house in the St. Roch neighborhood, about two miles from the French Quarter.
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“It's pretty clear by now that this man was radicalized online and was determined to try to kill as many innocent people as possible in the name of ISIS,” Wray said in his 60 Minutes interview.
Investigators work the scene after a person drove a car into a crowd of people earlier at Canal and Bourbon streets in New Orleans, Wednesday, January 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
He added that these types of lone wolf threats are becoming more common in the United States.
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“There was a man, a Pakistani national, who just a few months ago we worked with our Canadian partners to arrest,” Wray explained to host Scott Pelley. This man was trying to enter the United States, and into New York City, to carry out a mass shooting at the Jewish Center in Brooklyn. …In his own words, he wanted to carry out the largest attack in the United States since September 11.
The FBI continues to investigate the attack and said that while it appears Jabbar acted alone, authorities are still investigating whether he had any accomplices.
Fox News' Michael Ruiz contributed to this report.
