New Orleans Terrorist Attacker Acted Alone

The suspect in the New Year’s Day New Orleans terrorist attack, which killed 14 people and injured 35, is believed to have acted alone, the FBI said. Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a 42-year-old US citizen, is now the sole suspect.

The latest information is counter to that provided by the law enforcement agency earlier in the investigation, when it said it believed that multiple people were involved.

Jabbar drove a pickup truck into a busy New Orleans street, before exiting the vehicle and firing a weapon. He died in a shootout with the police. The FBI says an Islamic State (IS) group flag was found inside the vehicle he was driving.

Two improvised explosive devices (IEDs) were also found nearby, police said. Surveillance footage viewed by police shows Jabbar placing each of those devices in coolers along the busy Bourbon Street in New Orleans, said Christopher Raia, the deputy assistant director of the FBI’s counterterrorism division.

Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Mr Raia clarified that based on the latest available evidence, Jabbar is believed to have acted alone. Police believe that Jabbar rented a Ford F-150 pick-up truck in Houston, Texas on December 30th and drove it to New Orleans, Louisiana on the evening of December 31st.

That evening, Jabbar posted several videos on social media where he proclaimed his support for the Islamic State group, Mr Raia said. “This was an act of terrorism. It was premeditated and an evil act,” Raia said, adding that Jabbar acted alone. “He was 100 percent inspired by ISIS.”

FBI investigators say that there was no link between this terrorist attack, and the Las Vegas cyber truck explosion outside of a Trump hotel. With Donald Trump less than 3 weeks away from replacing Joe Biden as President of the United States, Mr Trump will have a lot of problems to fix, the moment he assumes office.

Hopefully, President-elect Trump has assembled a team that can navigate all of the problems and conflicts that he will inherit from the Biden administration. It’s the only way we as a country can move forward successfully.