New Orleans attacker acted alone, FBI says

FBI officials said they believe Shamsud-Din Jabbar acted alone in New Orleans in what they described as a terror attack inspired by ISIS.

“Let me be very clear about this point, this was an act of terrorism. It was premeditated and an evil act,” Christopher Raia, deputy assistant director of the FBI’s counterterrorism division, said Thursday.

“We do not assess at this point … that anyone else is involved in this attack,” he said, adding later that the FBI was confident there were “no accomplices” involved in the attack.

That’s a departure from FBI warnings yesterday, when the agency said Jabbar may not have acted alone. Officials said they’d uncovered significant new developments about the attack.

Jabbar barreled down Bourbon Street early on New Year’s Day in a rented truck, killing at least 14 people while the suspect was later killed in a shootout with police.

Raia said Jabbar posted several videos prior to carrying out the attack, professing support for the terror group ISIS.

In one video, he said he initially planned to kill family and friends, but Raia said Jabbar feared news coverage would not focus on the “war between the believers and the disbelievers” if he did not choose a broader target.

Raia said Jabbar also claimed to have joined ISIS ahead of the summer, though his links to the group remain unclear.

“That path to radicalization — that we’re really going to be digging into and making a priority,” he said, describing Jabbar as “100 percent inspired by ISIS.”

“We’re working with some of our other partners to ascertain … a little bit more about that connection.”

Raia said authorities had recovered three phones belonging to Jabbar as well as two laptops that they planned to search.

The FBI at this point has not established any connection between Jabbar’s attack and an incident in Las Vegas where a man ignited a Tesla Cybertruck in front of the Trump Hotel.

Jabbar, 42, is a U.S. citizen and veteran deployed to Afghanistan who appeared to have had a rocky personal life.

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), who was among the lawmakers to attend a congressional briefing on the incident, said he was told Jabbar was someone who “displayed all the symptoms of somebody who had very troubled, convoluted personal life.”

“I think he had three different wives, and there were different abuse allegations along the way, so all of that will come out, but it looks like the usual mix of severe personal problems with a growing attachment to a fanatical terrorist ideology,” Raskin said during an appearance on CNN.

City officials planned to reopen Bourbon Street ahead of Thursday’s Sugar Bowl, while Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry (R) called the city “one of the safest places on earth” due to increased police presence.

Raia said the FBI had also disabled two pipe bombs that were left in coolers on Bourbon Street, saying earlier information about the possibility of additional devices was not substantiated.

Some of the FBI’s remarks were a reversal from statements made on New Year’s Day, with Raia and Landry saying the shift was a result of gaining new information.

“We want to be transparent with the public,” Raia said, noting “years of the FBI not being transparent.”

“As we’re being transparent, unfortunately for that, there is some information that we have to go back and re-correct,” he said, adding that in 24 hours investigators have worked “hundreds and hundreds of leads.”

Landy also defended the bureau and law enforcement working on the case.

“Information changes … No one does a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle and puts it together in five seconds,” he said.

“Because over the last decade, law enforcement has taken it on the chin unfairly … Sometimes the information we put out, we end up finding out that it may be incorrect. But guess what we’re doing? What we’re doing here is something I think is important. It’s called transparency. And something may change again.”

Updated at 1:10 p.m. EST

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to The Hill.