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CNN International: FBI Investigating New Orleans Attack As Act Of Terrorism; New Orleans Attack Suspect Made Videos Saying He Had Joined ISIS; Sources: Man Connected To Rental Of Vehicle That Exploded In Las Vegas Is Active Duty U.S. Soldier. Aired 11a-12p ET
Aired January 02, 2025 - 11:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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ZAIN ASHER, HOST, "CNN NEWSROOM": Hello, and welcome to our viewers from around the world. I'm Zain Asher for you in New York.
Still to come here on CNN Newsroom, terror on Bourbon Street. What we're learning from the FBI investigation into the New Orleans attack and its victims. And in Las Vegas, the FBI is working to determine whether a Tesla Cybertruck explosion is actually connected to the New Orleans attack. Plus, winter in Gaza, bitter cold and heavy rain makes survival hard for tens of thousands of Palestinians living in makeshift tents.
Well, right now, against the backdrop of a massive law enforcement investigation, security right now is being ramped up as the shaken city of New Orleans prepares to welcome massive crowds for the Sugar Bowl College Football game later today, and two major questions are being asked. Did the suspect have help, and was ISIS actually involved here? Thousands will gather in the area in less than 48 hours after a driver plowed through revelers who were celebrating the start of a new year. The 42-year-old suspect has been identified as Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a Texas man and a U.S. Army veteran. Police shared new details about a series of videos he allegedly recorded, one of which includes a pledge to ISIS. Authorities say they don't believe the driver was solely responsible for this attack.
The FBI says the search for a Houston location believed to be connected to the suspect is over. It's one of a number of searches being conducted across multiple states, and questions still remain about whether the incident in New Orleans is linked to the Cybertruck explosion outside a Trump hotel in Las Vegas hours later. There are a lot of similarities, which we're going to be examining in just a moment.
Meantime, we are learning more about some of the 15 victims who were killed in New Orleans on Bourbon Street. One of them was a former college football player at Princeton, another a loving father of two young children. Both were Louisiana natives. Witnesses are now trying to process what they saw.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) RUTH CHAVEZ, WITNESSED ATTACK: We heard the gunshots, and everyone
started running, and then they ended up locking us in the building, and they shut all the doors, told us to get down, and when we came outside, that's when we saw the truck that was crashed right outside where we were at, and we saw the first responders trying to save a young man, and they were working on him for so long, and we were just hoping and praying he was going to survive, but there was no life in him at all.
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ASHER: There is so much to discuss just in terms of this investigation.
We're joined now live by CNN Chief Law Enforcement Analyst John Miller, and CNN Senior Investigative Correspondent Kyung Lah.
John, let me start with you, because there really are so many questions here. First of all, was this actually directed by ISIS? Was it merely inspired by ISIS? Did the suspect act alone? Was he working in conjunction with others? And how much of a link is there really to what happened in Las Vegas outside that Trump hotel? Just walk us through what the investigation actually looks like at this point, John.
JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: Well, Zain, on the ISIS angle, all we know so far, and that could change, is that the suspect in a series of recordings he made, apparently as he drove from Texas to Louisiana to embark on this attack, he talks about he had a number of dreams, and those made it clear that he was going to join ISIS and carry out this attack. He was in turmoil with his family, but he wanted to make it clear that don't assume I'm doing this to hurt you, the family. I'm doing this for ISIS. So, that's the connection we have so far.
The search warrants into his phones, his computers, his communications over the weeks and months leading up to this, that will probably illuminate the FBI and police in New Orleans as to whether he was watching propaganda, communicating with people overseas, whether it was inspired by things he watched or read, or whether it was directed or supported by ISIS, answers that right now are still unknown. And yesterday, as you recall, the Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the New Orleans Field Division of the FBI asserted that, at that time, at the very beginning, they believe there were others involved. Let's just go back and listen to that.
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ALETHEA DUNCAN, FBI ASST. SPECIAL AGENT IN CHARGE, NEW ORLEANS: We do not believe that Jabbar was solely responsible. We are aggressively running down every lead, including those of his known associates. That's why we need the public's help. We are asking, if anybody has any interactions with Shamsud-Din Jabbar in the last 72 hours, that you contact us.
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MILLER: Now, this is something where they have shifted, as you know, because we've been through these things before, you and I on the air. The first story is never right. It's probably the fog of war, I guess you would compare it to, but they've had time now to review the video tapes, review them carefully, look in between the crowds, and they have backed away, as we reported yesterday, from four people on the ground helping to place IEDs around the scene. They now believe that those four people had nothing to do with it. They are focused on whether he stayed alone in an Airbnb on another street in New Orleans, where the IEDs might have been produced, or if he had help. But, the idea that their original assumption was that he had a team supporting him on the ground, has pretty much been investigated out of the case theory right now.
As for New Orleans, that's where they are there. But, Las Vegas, the similarities, the same rent-a-car company Turo was used to get the vehicle, another individual who is an active duty military person from Special Forces, and a car bomb basically targeting a Trump location in an Elon Musk vehicle. There is a lot of similarities that could be coincidences or could be connectors. They're investigating their way through that, looking to see, is there any association or contact between the two men? Is there any contact between the Las Vegas suspect, any terrorist groups or propaganda? Right now, none yet. But, they have to go through that to determine, are these two separate incidents that occurred on the same date, or are they connected?
ASHER: Well, hopefully we are going to be getting a little bit more information, because the FBI is going to have a press conference within the hour, I'm being told, and so, hopefully we will get some more answers.
But, what's interesting, John, is that this is the second time in, I want to say, two weeks, maybe two and a half weeks, you and I are talking about potential terrorists using vehicles as weapons. I'm sure you remember just before Christmas, you and I spoke about the Christmas market attack in Germany, where that was the case as well. We talked about what happened in 2016 and also what happened in Nice. Where did this phenomenon start? And walk us through what authorities can actually do about it, because soft targets are notoriously difficult to protect.
MILLER: It starts with Al-Qaeda. Al-Qaeda, in its magazine, Inspire magazine, did a full front page issue recommending ramming attacks, because Al-Qaeda began to realize, if you're driving attackers through propaganda, you can reach out to them and not go through the complex training of how to make a bomb, not go through the complex training of how to be a successful active shooter and obtain weapons. Anybody can get a car. ISIS actually honed the model further in their magazine, Rumiyah magazine, where they came out with the recipe.
And listen closely to this, because it appears that the suspect in New Orleans followed the ISIS recipe to a tea (ph), find the largest vehicle you can get, find the narrowest and most crowded street you can target, and target it against the crowds at full speed to achieve maximum lethality. At the end, when you are stopped, have secondary weapons so that you can jump out and continue attack with either guns or knives or bombs, in this cases, bombs and guns were allegedly involved, and confront the police and try to achieve martyrdom, your own death, as kind of the capper to the event. If you look at the ISIS menu, he pretty well ticked down all of the recommendations.
ASHER: That is chilling. John Miller, stand by.
Let me bring in Kyung into the conversation. So, Kyung, let's talk a little bit more about the suspect here, because when we look at certain videos of him online, he seemed like a relatively normal guy. I mean, there is a New York Times reporter who interviewed him 10 years ago, who described him as cool, calm and collected. Obviously, when you sort of peel behind the curtain, you can see that there were a lot of issues in his life, financial difficulties. There was turmoil within his family. He talked about, at one point, killing his whole family, and then being inspired to join ISIS. Just talk to us a bit more about who this man actually is.
KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: It's very perplexing because here we have a 42-year-old man who, up until recently, yes, had some personal difficulties, had divorces, had financial issues, but at least according to his public profile, seemed like quite an ordinary person up until recent years. He had been born in Texas. He was educated in the United States at Georgia State University, and he served in the U.S. Army. And I want to start there.
Take a look at this picture. This is from 2013, and we've been showing it through this program.
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He is -- this is from a 2013 U.S. Army Facebook post and it identifies him as an Army Staff Sergeant working as an information technology team chief for the 82nd Airborne Division's First Brigade Combat Team. Now, he had a little bit of trouble while he was in the army. In 2014, he was stopped for drunk driving. He was charged with a couple of charges in relation to that stop. He did leave the army in 2015 as an active soldier, and did serve in the Army Reserves. But then he went to college. He went to Georgia State, and he graduated. He moved into real estate where he got a license. And it's during that point that we see this video that he had posted on YouTube, called personal introduction.
And when you listen to him, he just sounds like an ordinary guy. The video has been taken down, but we want you to listen to his voice, because it gives you a bit of a snapshot into his background.
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SHAMSUD-DIN JABBAR, NEW ORLEANS SHOOTING SUSPECT: -- where I learned the meaning of great service and what it means to be responsive and take everything seriously, dotting i's and crossing r's to make sure that things go off --
(END VIDEO CLIP) LAH: So, beyond that, what was happening in the background in the
years to follow is that he was struggling personally. He had his first divorce. In 2012, his first wife sued him for child support. And then later on, he remarried, and then had another divorce. And in those divorce filings, you see an email from him where he talks about being tens of thousands of dollars in debt, credit card, business losses, as well as fearing foreclosure because he had fallen so far behind in payments on his house.
So, all of these personal struggles are coming to bear, and then something turned. And so, that's why when you hear John talk about the focus on the investigation, how it happened, it's going to be very critical to know those sorts of details.
ASHER: All right. Kyung Lah live for us there, John Miller, thank you both so much. Appreciate it.
I want to welcome Jamil Jaffer, a former Counsel to the Assistant Attorney General for U.S. National Security. He also served as a former Associate Counsel to President George W. Bush. Thank you so much for being with us. I'm not sure if you heard John Miller speaking there. Him and I were talking about the fact that these sort of using vehicles as weapons have become a little bit more popular in recent years, and what authorities can actually do about it. And John was actually saying that the thing about vehicles that make them a popular use in terms of weapons for ISIS and for terrorists in general is that you don't have to train anyone on how to make a bomb, for example. You don't have to teach anyone how to be the perfect shooter. Anybody can rent a vehicle.
That is obviously scary, because that means that these sorts of attacks aren't necessarily going away. What can authorities do about that?
JAMIL JAFFER, FMR. COUNSEL TO ASSISTANT ATTORNEY GENERAL FOR NATL. SECURITY, & FORMER ASSOCIATE COUNSEL TO PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH: Well, that's exactly right. I mean, look, one of the things that the authorities can do is identify these potential terror suspects ahead of time, identify who might be radicalized, and then see if they have enough information to get a probable cause warrant to do surveillance on them and identify whether they're renting vehicles, acquiring materials, and like.
We do this in the foreign terrorism context quite a bit. Trying to figure out how to do it in the domestic terrorism context, or in the domestic target context, is harder because of all the First Amendment -- Fourth Amendment, I should say, requirements for getting a warrant on somebody in the United States who is -- in particular, who is an American citizen. So, I think that's part of the challenge here.
But, you've got to figure out what the warning signs are, and then you can identify them. Otherwise, a committed attacker who is willing to use themselves, take their own life or give up their own life, it's going to be very hard to stop them. And when you give them a capability like a vehicle or something easy, or firearms or anything of that matter, even building bombs that are homemade, you can get instructions on the internet now, unfortunately, it presents a very real challenge that's hard to combat.
ASHER: Just in terms of protecting soft targets like Bourbon Street, for example, just talk to us about what you think could have been done in the lead up to this? I mean, obviously, that street is extremely popular, especially at night time. It's obviously going to be crowded on New Year's Eve. What could have been done to possibly prevent something like this, in the first place?
JAFFER: Well, you saw the chaotic news conference yesterday with a bunch of voices speaking and trying to get their view in and try to defend their situation. But, they knew the bollards, for example, weren't working. They had taken them down for the right thing to do, to build them up in preparation for the Super Bowl, but they weren't ready. And what you could have done is parked large dump trucks, large storage trucks in front of those things, instead of just small police vehicles that couldn't be gotten around. That's what we often do for national security special events in Washington, D.C. You use snow plows. You use big trucks. You use dump trucks and the like. That didn't happen here. Obviously, that's a lesson learned. They will be doing that, I'm sure, going forward.
And then, when you're taking these bollards down, have a backup plan in place. That's the main thing. Beyond that, it's very hard to stop a committed attacker.
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Look, if he'd come on foot with a semi-automatic rifle, he probably could have killed more people than he did, the 15 people he did with his vehicle. We've seen that happen in the nightclub shooting. We've seen that happen in schools and the like. And so, there are capabilities that people are willing to sacrifice their own lives. They can utilize to conduct a mass casualty attack just on their own.
ASHER: And in terms of whether or not this was inspired by ISIS, actually directed by ISIS, when you look at the evidence here, and obviously investigators are still passing through, there is a lot that we don't know at this point, but what stands out to you from that point, just in terms of how this attack may have originated?
JAFFER: Well, look what we've heard about this attacker is that he had some mental health issues, or appears to have some mental health issues. We know he had family trouble. We know he had financial trouble. At the same time, for 13 years, he served, ostensibly, honorably, in the U.S. military, although he had some issues towards the end. And so, the question becomes, how do you become radicalized, and what happened here? He clearly had an ISIS flag on him on the back of that vehicle. He posted these postings, making clear that he had some desire or interest in that group. And so, that suggests there is some amount of radicalization.
How that took place, though, we don't know the mechanism, but he is the kind of guy, as John Miller laid out, is vulnerable. He is the exact target that ISIS is looking for, somebody born in the United States, raised here with military training, right, who has easy access to conduct an attack on his own with limited resources. That's what ISIS is looking for. They are looking for that vulnerable American. Unfortunately, here they found one, and they took action.
ASHER: And in terms of what we saw in Las Vegas with that Cybertruck explosion outside a Trump hotel, I mean, just the fact that the two men had military backgrounds, they both used the Turo app to rent their vehicles, I mean, what are the chances of that -- those two things being just coincidences?
JAFFER: Boy, it would be a weird coincidence that they used the same app. Both rented the cars at a long distance, traveled long distance to their targets, conducted the attack, both former military, may have even served in similar units, although the attacker in Las Vegas looks to have been Special Forces for a long time and similar job backgrounds. At the same time, there are aspects of the Las Vegas attack that don't fit with this attack. You had the association of a Tesla vehicle with the Trump Tower and the Elon Musk dynamic. So, it may be a political motive there. We're just not sure. We don't know enough. These are very strange coincidences for things to happen in the same day. It's possible more to be seen here, though, I think.
ASHER: All right. Jamil Jaffer, thank you so much. Appreciate you joining us.
All right. And as we were just talking about there, we are learning a little bit more information about that Cybertruck explosion outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas. Officials are telling CNN, the man connected to the rental of the truck is an active duty U.S. Special Forces soldier. The explosion wounded seven people and killed the driver. According to police, he detonated the blast with fireworks, gas tanks and camping fuel. The vehicle was rented on the same platform used to obtain the truck in the New Orleans ramming attack. Now, investigators want to know if the attacks are linked and if the Las Vegas explosion was an act of terror as well.
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SHERIFF KEVIN MCMAHILL, SHERIFF, LAS VEGAS METROPOLITAN POLICE DEPT.: Well, I mean, it's a Tesla truck, and we know that Elon Musk is working with President-elect Trump, and it's the Trump Tower. So, there is obviously things to be concerned about there, and that's something we continue to look at. The fact that this was a Cybertruck really limited the damage that occurred inside of the valet because it had most of the blast go up through the truck and out. In fact, if you look on that video, you'll see that the front glass doors at the Trump hotel were not even broken by that blast.
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ASHER: CNN's Natasha Chen joins us live now from Las Vegas. So, Natasha, what more are we learning about the driver here?
NATASHA CHEN, CNN U.S. NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Right. Authorities are still working on publicly identifying him. We are talking to the FBI about that, about the arm -- to the army about that. In the meantime, the FBI in Denver, Colorado, have said that they have specialized teams working at a residence today in Colorado Springs. They put out a statement, saying that they would be there for several hours and that it's related to this Vegas explosion, but they could not say more about their work there.
Related to what you were saying about the man connected to the rental of this Cybertruck, he is apparently 10th Special Forces Group, rank of Master Sergeant, a senior enlisted rank, according to U.S. officials, and U.S. officials told our colleague that he was active duty and was on leave from Germany at the time of this explosion. You saw the video -- surveillance video of that explosion happening just about 24 hours ago.
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If we can go in a little closer, you can see some teams there trying to clean up some of the debris still. Though -- as we've heard from law enforcement, the body construction of that Tesla Cybertruck actually limited the damage quite a bit, to the extent where even the glass on the front of that Trump hotel that you're seeing was not damaged. So, even though you do have police presence there and you have some clean-up going on, the hotel is still fully operational right now for guests to come in and out of that entrance to check in, etc. We hope to be hearing more from law enforcement today about this investigation.
What we do know is that the Cybertruck was rented from Colorado on the platform Turo, which was the same platform used by the attacker in New Orleans to rent that truck, and that it was driven to Las Vegas by 07:30 a.m. on New Year's Day, drove up and down the strip, and then in about an hour before the explosion, drove past the Trump hotel. Here is the FBI in Las Vegas talking about this investigation.
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JEREMY SCHWARTZ, ACTING SPECIAL AGENT, FBI: As of right now, our number one goal is to ensure that we have the proper identification of the subject involved in this incident. Following that, our second objective is to determine whether this was an act of terrorism or not. I know everybody is interested in that word, and trying to see if we can say, hey, this is a terrorist attack. That is our goal, and that's what trying to do.
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CHEN: There have been discussions in the New Orleans incident about that attacker having ISIS in -- related to that attack. That is not so far the case in this Las Vegas attack. As of yesterday, when police briefed the media, they said that they don't have any indication of a link to ISIS here with this explosion. But, of course, as you heard, there is still a great amount of investigative work being done to see if there is any connection between this and the New Orleans attack, Zain.
ASHER: Natasha Chen, thank you. And just in terms of what you just mentioned there, investigators obviously trying to figure out if there is a link between what happened in New Orleans and what happened in Las Vegas. We are learning, just into CNN, that FBI investigators say that the suspect of the New Orleans ramming attack, Shamsud-Din Jabbar, did actually act alone, that FBI investigators now believe that the suspect in New Orleans acted alone. There was some debate, because there were a lot of similarities between what happened in New Orleans and what happened in Las Vegas. Both men rented their trucks and their vehicles from the Turo app. They both had U.S. military backgrounds as well.
But, authorities are now telling CNN that the suspect in New Orleans acted alone, and we are going to get a lot more on this breaking news story at a press conference from the FBI in New Orleans later on this hour.
We'll have much more news after this short break.
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JEFF LANDRY, LOUISIANA GOVERNOR: -- pieces. And you want to start, if you were real good, you start at the corners, right, try to put your corners together. And from yesterday to today, over 1,000 law enforcement agents and officers, men and women, have been pouring over countless amounts of data, of videos, of surveillances, interviews, tracking down every possible lead that came to us, whether it was the New Orleans Police Department, the Louisiana State Police, the FBI, or other federal agencies.
Also yesterday, we declared -- I issued an emergency declaration.
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That declaration was meant to streamline the resources and communications between state, local and federal partners, and we're seeing the results of it. I also would like to remind everyone that what's going on in the city and the state is two-fold. We've got (TECHNICAL DIFFICULTY) while we're also continuing to secure the city in preparation for three o'clock kickoff time for the Sugar Bowl.
With that, I would also remind those who are in the city that as far as state resources are concerned, we have the Louisiana State Police, the Louisiana National Guard, which was part of that emergency declaration, which allowed us to put an entire MP company on the ground, those become force multipliers, is what we call that in law enforcement, in the military. That helps to add to the resources that we have. Wildlife and fisheries, the Department of Corrections, DSF, the HS, our Veterans Affairs, our probation and parole, all state agencies, any state agency, who has post-certified offices are here in this city to help secure this city.
And so, with that, I would like to turn it over to Christopher Raia, who is the Deputy Assistant Director of the FBI's Counterterrorism Division. Chris.
CHRISTOPHER RAIA, DEPUTY ASSISTANT DIRECTOR, FBI COUNTERTERRORISM DIVISION: Thank you, Governor Landry. Good morning. I am FBI Deputy Assistant Director Christopher Raia. I'm from our Counterterrorism Division at headquarters. I'm also joined by Assistant Special Agent in Charge Alethea Duncan from our New Orleans office, who you heard from yesterday. I'm here to discuss not only the latest investigative information we
have here in New Orleans, but also let you know about other investigative activities outside of the state. I first and most importantly want to send our deepest condolences to the victims of this horrific attack and their loved ones. 14 innocent victims were killed in this senseless attack, and at least 35 are injured. We cannot ease the grief people in this community and across the nation are feeling at this time, but rest assured, we stand with you and in support of you.
All the resources, and I'm going to go into that a little bit later, all the resources of the FBI are being focused on tracking down every piece of evidence, every lead, every interview, every potential lead we've got. While I won't be able to answer all your questions today, my goal is to be as forthcoming as possible with you on what we've uncovered so far.
First and foremost, let me be very clear about this point. This was an act of terrorism. It was premeditated and an evil act. This was obviously a critical incident, and with that lots of information and tips come pouring in from law enforcement, first responders and the public. We have been aggressively running down these tips and information. As you all know, that takes time, and we will continue to do so until every lead has been followed through on. This investigation is only a little more than 24 hours -- years-old. So -- 24-hours-old. So, I ask you to keep in mind that, as I go through some of the specifics later.
But, at this point, currently, and this is another position -- another fact I want to be clear on, we do not assess at this point that anyone else involved in this attack -- is involved in this attack, except for Shamsud-Din Jabbar, the subject you've already been briefed on.
A little bit about what the FBI is doing. So, we are surging people and assets to the area from across the region and across the nation. Special agents in multiple field offices across the country have been deployed and are assisting with potential aspects of this investigation and following up on every lead. Additional teams of special agents, professional staff and victim specialists continue to arrive to provide more investigative power and assistance to the victims and their families. We have also foredeployed (ph) a number of our critical incident response group assets, including members of our hostage rescue team, special agent bomb technicians, and crisis management coordinators. In addition, we have deployed more evidence response technicians to continue to process the various scenes that we have.
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So far, we have received just over 400 tips from the public, and that information is being followed up on both here in New Orleans and across the country. Some of the tips are here in New Orleans, and there are other tips in other states across the country that we are following up on. The FBI team and our law enforcement partners here are also reviewing hundreds of hours of surveillance and other video from both the French Quarter and other locations. As for a timeline, at this point, investigators believe Jabbar picked
up the rented F-150 in Houston, Texas on December 30th. He then drove from Houston to New Orleans on the evening of the 31st, and he posted several videos to an online platform, proclaiming his support for ISIS. There were five videos posted on Jabbar's Facebook account, which are time stamped, beginning at 01:29 a.m. and the last at 03:02 a.m. In the first video, Jabbar explains he originally planned to harm his family and friends, but was concerned the news headlines would not focus on the, quote, "war between the believers and the disbelievers", end quote. Additionally, he stated he had joined ISIS before this summer. He also provided a will and testament.
FBI and ATF -- FBI -- we have a couple of different scenes at the location. As you -- we have released the scene at Bourbon Street. That scene has been released. We also have a scene of a Mandeville address where we're currently searching that scene right now. FBI and ATF agents have secured that house, and that location is being searched for potential evidence. On New Year's morning, Jabbar opened fire after ramming through a blocked off area of Bourbon Street, used his truck as a weapon to run over the victims. Teams of specially trained victim specialists, again, as I said, are on the ground here in New Orleans, assisting survivors of the attacked and loved ones of the deceased.
We do not believe the public is in any danger around any of these locations. Three phones linked to Jabbar have been recovered, and digital media exploitation is a priority to see what is on the devices and determine if there are any other potential leads. Additionally, we have recovered two laptops and are currently reviewing them for any potential leads. Those laptops were recovered at the Mandeville address.
Evidence technicians will also be going over the F-150 truck Jabbar was driving. As you know, we recovered an ISIS flag from the back of the vehicle. Jabbar declared his support for the terrorist group on social media, as I stated before, as he made his way to New Orleans. FBI bomb technicians also recovered two IEDs in coolers, one from the cross-section of Bourbon and Orleans Street, and the second at an intersection approximately two blocks away.
There were multiple reports of other devices. Those reports turned out to be misinformation or not actual functioning devices. Those are the only two devices that we've been able to recover that were functional. Both devices were rendered safe on scene. We did obtain surveillance footage showing Jabbar placing the devices where they were found. Two other of item -- two other -- as I said before, two other items of interest were determined not to be IEDs.
A little bit about Jabbar. Jabbar himself was born in the United States and is a U.S. military veteran. We are looking in everything in his life. While we have interviewed many people who know Jabbar, we still need to talk to others. Whether you know Jabbar personally, worked with him, served in the military, or saw him in New Orleans or Texas, we need to talk to you. You may not think you have relevant information, but what you know could tie in to one of our investigative leads. Specifically, we want to talk to anyone who was in the French Quarter
on New Year's Eve or early on New Year's Day. That includes people spotted near one of the two IEDs on Bourbon Street.
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That include -- the IED was inside a cooler, and many people stopped and looked at the cooler and then continued on their way. Let's be clear again, we do not believe at this point these people are involved in this incident in any way. We want to speak to them, as witnesses, and want to know what they saw and when.
I went down to the crime scene last night. It is very hard to put into words what it looked like and how difficult it was to see. Anyone with information can call us at 1800-CALL-FBI, or send digital tips to fbi.gov/bourbonstreetattack.
Earlier this morning, evidence response teams finished their work at the crime scene. Bourbon Street has been turned over to the city of New Orleans. As you know, there is also an FBI investigation in Las Vegas. We are following up on all potential leads and not ruling everything out. However, at this point, there is no definitive link between the attack here in New Orleans and the one in Las Vegas.
And again, I'll preface, as I close, I'll preface everything with what I started with in the beginning, which was, this is very early in an investigation like this. Again, our thoughts and prayers -- our thoughts and our prayers are with the victims of this tragedy and everyone impacted across the country. They remain at the heart of our investigation. I also, although I've only been on the ground here a short time, I also want to express the sincere appreciation for our partners here, which include the U.S. Attorney's Office, HIS, ATF, the New Orleans PD, the Louisiana State Police, the governor's office, and countless others.
At this point, I'm going to turn it over to the Special Agent in Charge of ATF here, Josh Jackson.
JOSHUA JACKSON, SPECIAL AGENT IN CHARGE - NEW ORLEANS, ATF: Hey, good afternoon. As stated, my name is Joshua Jackson. I am the Special Agent in Charge for the ATF New Orleans Field Division. And ATF's primary mission is preventing, reducing and solving violent crime throughout the United States and abroad. Solving part is the focus of this investigation, ATF resources that have been brought to bear, to the city, and to focus with our federal, state and local partners, have been our National Response Team.
We spoke about the scene that's still being processed now. The National Response Team of ATF is a team of certified fire investigators, certified explosive specialists, fire engineers, electrical engineers. These folks will give us additional investigative leads to help the investigative team identify what happened at the location in Mandeville, and identify how that fire started and move the investigation forward from there, additional resources that ATF has brought to bear into the city. As our ATF Special Response Team, this is tactical team capable of
handling any sort of enforcement operation. This team is deployed on set and ready for the Sugar Bowl today. This team is also made available to the Louisiana State Police and also New Orleans Police Department to assist with any efforts that they may have during this period. Additional resources, as the governor alluded to, he executed executive powers and had an emergency declared to where we're able -- ATF was able to tap in to assist emergency support functions, 13 resources. This allowed us to bring additional explosive detection canines so that we can safely sweep the city and safely sweep the Super Bowl in preparation for the game today.
These resources will still be in the city, as we lead up through the Super Bowl and through Mardi Gras. These type of ATF resources will be here. The last resources ATF has brought to bear, and probably the most important one, is our victim witness coordinators. These folks come in and they provide resources to the victims and their family members that have suffered greatly during this tragedy. The entire city hurts, but the victims and the family members are in need of resources and care long after this investigation wraps up this time next year to be hard for the families and friends who suffered during this event. So, our victim witness coordinators are working with FBI, the city of New Orleans coordinators, to provide resources to these folks out here.
And as we move forward, ATF will be committed. We will work with the investigative team moving this investigation forward, but also we'll be here to make sure the city is safe and prepared as we move into the Super Bowl.
And with that, I'm going to turn it over to our mayor of this great city, New Orleans. Madam Mayor.
[11:40:00]
LATOYA CANTRELL, NEW ORLEANS MAYOR: Thank you so much. Thank you so much.
Well, good morning once again. And I just want to just echo my thank yous to the unified command of our law enforcement partners and at every single level, federal, state and governor, Governor, thank you for your partnership. Thank you. I also want to thank the residents and the visitors of the city of New Orleans for your patience, for your support, and most of all, your prayers. Our hearts and prayers continue to go out to the victims' families. And the city of New Orleans, we are resilient. And as I stated on yesterday, my focus in terms of a priority has been on our victims.
As you heard that, yes, the FBI was able to clear Bourbon Street, and what that meant also for me and this city was that we were able to remove our victims, identify them, and notify their families, real reverence. They mattered. The families matter and matter to the city of New Orleans.
In addition to that, I want to just thank again our federal partners in Washington, listening to my plea personally for the additional resources to allow for the scene to be clear, and again, attending to our victims. I walk by each one, and I did the sign across in my own way, because reverence, again, is important.
So, while we have been able to have Bourbon Street return back to the city of New Orleans, and the due diligence has been done, that then allowed me to give the go ahead to begin the cleaning of Bourbon Street. That started happening in the morning about 02:00 a.m. It was completed before 08:00 a.m. this morning.
But, that has really set the tone, I would say, and with the confidence that I have in the law enforcement partners, all of the resources that have been activated, how we have made sure that safety continues to be our top priority, how our assets have been deployed strategically, again, for the safety and for the protection of our visitors and our residents in the city, and because of that, the confidence is there to reopen Bourbon Street to the public prior to game time today. The first order will be to allow for vendors to come in and service the businesses. That's important in order for us to stand up activation, as you know, Governor.
And so, with that, I want to reassure the public that the city of New Orleans is not only ready for game day today, but we're ready to continue to host large-scale events in our city, because we are built to host at every single turn. I want to again thank all of those who responded to the FBI's call for information and tips. As you heard, that has been useful. Continue to do that. The investigation is still active, and absolutely under the FBI's leadership. We will continue to operate and cooperate, as we always have.
So, I want to also thank all of our partners for the added resources for victim and crisis management. We know that that's again important. Working with our partner, the Greater New Orleans Foundation, we have set up a fund for our victims' families for not only today, but into the future. As you heard, this is going to be a long process for our people.
So, with that, the city of New Orleans, and with all of my confidence, we are ready, and we could not get here again without the unified presence, support and cooperation. We are stronger together. And I want to say again, thank you so much. Thank you, Governor. So, once again, the governor would like me to reiterate that Bourbon Street will be prepared for full activation before game time today, we know 03:00 p.m.
[11:45:00]
So, we're working towards 02:30 p.m. But, prior to game time, the kick off Bourbon Street will be restored. So, we're hard at work now. Our teams are now, and of course, working with our business community to serve our public and serve our residents and our visitors alike. Thank you.
LANDRY: In closing, I want to rest people (inaudible). Right now in the city of New Orleans, there is an unprecedented amount of law enforcement resources that are being utilized to close out and to hunt down and to finalize this investigation. I want to thank the FBI and all of our federal partners for the amount of resources they have poured into the city. This type of event can happen in any city, and that's the tragedy of it.
And I think it's important for people to understand that to protect our citizens in America from evil, you have to crush it. You can't go out there and placate it. You can't go out there and say, Oh, I'm going to put this in place and that in place and hope that evil doesn't show up on your doorstep, because it will. You have to crush it, and that's what we're going to do here. We're going to put it all behind us. We're going to continue to keep the victims, those that are in the hospital, either fighting for their lives or trying to recover, in our thoughts and in our prayers.
But, this morning, and I don't want to single out just one news source, but I just happened to turn on Fox & Friends, and that was a young man who was interviewed, who was actually on Bourbon Street during this horrific act of terrorism, and they closed out by asking him, what now? And I think he summed it up. He said, look, we can't live in fear, because fear will paralyze us. He said, we come down to this city to enjoy ourselves and to entertain ourselves and to be with our friends and with our families, because that's who we are.
Louisiana invented hospitality. The people in this city care for each other, and believe me, we care about each one of the lives that were lost in this city and that we will never forget them. But, it would be a tragedy if we let their losses be snuffed out because of fear. This city will be back. We will be open to family and friends and loved ones who want some time to relax from the pressures of life. And so, today, we're going to have us a Sugar Bowl. We're going to enjoy ourselves. We're going to keep those, again, who have lost loved ones, in mind, and we're going to get on to the business of this city in this great country.
With that, I'll take any questions,
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Governor, this is for you and the assistant director. The message has really changed since yesterday. Yesterday, the FBI said that people should be vigilant, that he did not act alone, that he likely had help, and now you're coming out the very next day and saying he was a lone wolf. Everything is safe. The game moves on. Everybody, have a good time. How can you be so sure just 12 hours later?
LANDRY: Well, we're going to bring him up. All right? But, here is what -- I want to remind everyone, like, I worked it. I was the deputy sheriff. All right? I worked in a jail. I worked on the street. I worked on the interstate. I served warrants. I can tell you. Look, in today's world, I get it. Information -- we get information like that. Everybody lives in a 15-second TikTok video. We think that life operates like it does on our phones, and it just doesn't. Information changes. In fact, that's why we ask the media for patience. We get information, like I said, putting it, no one dumps 1,000 piece jigsaw puzzle and puts it together in five seconds. OK?
And what I would tell you is that I would rather -- I appreciate the fact that what we did was we're underpromising and overdelivering today, and I think that's important. And I want to remind something. Look, because over the last decade, law enforcement has taken it on the chin, unfairly, and there are great men and women serving in the FBI, in ATF, in Louisiana State Police, in New Orleans PD. Our sheriffs have been unbelievable in this. And I tell you, they want to protect you all, and we have to trust them. And sometimes, the information we put out, we end up finding out that it may be incorrect.
[11:50:00]
And sometimes the information we put out, we end up finding out that it may be incorrect. But, guess what? What we're doing here is something I think is important. It's called transparency. And look, something may change again. Here is what I do know, though. Right now, this is one of the safest places on earth. That doesn't mean that nothing can happen.
RAIA: Thank you, Governor. And to echo exactly, I think the governor put it eloquently, as could be said. In a lot of these instances, I also had the opportunity to put a boss bomb, and I will tell you, this is almost carbon copied a boss bomb, as far as the inaccurate reporting that comes up. And what the governor said is, we want to be transparent with the public. Years of the FBI not being transparent, we're being as transparent as we possibly can. Unfortunately, as we're being transparent, unfortunately for that, there is some information that we have to go back and re-correct.
And in this particular incident, you heard the resources that we brought that the other state and locals have brought. We've had 24 hours now to go through media, to go through phones, to interview people, to analyze those videos, analyze other databases, and after all of that, there has been hundreds and hundreds of leads done just in 24 hours. We're confident at this point that there is no accomplices.
And I'll give you an idea of how that information sometimes -- a lot of the early reports came out that there were people that -- extra people that were setting the coolers down, right? It turns out those were just patrons on the street that were looking inside the coolers, right? We didn't know that at first. We had to kind of track all that down and put that dress. So, that's just an example, one of the pieces of information. But, there were other pieces of information that -- after we got our feet under us a little bit and on the ground here, we were able to put together a much more accurate picture of the subject and his attention.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Inaudible) 14 or 15.
RAIA: Yes, 14, and then the shooter himself would be 15 total, to include the shooter.
(CROSSTALK) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Inaudible) the IEDs pythons, and have you discovered a remote detonator anywhere? You said that he planted -- you have surveillance footage of the suspect planting those IEDs. What time roughly were they planted?
RAIA: Yeah. Those -- roughly a couple of hours -- I don't have the exact times in front of me, a couple of hours prior to the attack, probably after midnight, after -- I want to say one or two in the morning, but I can't --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So, he got the area and came back.
RAIA: Correct. That's our assumption now. I mean, we still have a lot to work through. We're getting more surveillance video and everything else, but that's the assumption.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Inaudible) on Bourbon Street. Would there have been canines out on New Year's Eve? Would there have been bombs (inaudible)?
LANDRY: Look, I think -- let me just say this, and either Joe or Rob will correct me. Look, a bomb dog doesn't operate like a drug doll, right? They -- on Bourbon Street, there is a lot of sense, right? A lot of smells. I don't think you can run a bomb dog down Bourbon Street with thousands of people there and be able to sniff out a bomb. What we've been doing -- what they have been doing is certainly a complete sweep of the quarter because of the limited amount of traffic that's been out there.
Let me just say this. I think this may help. It would be my hope that as some additional time goes through, maybe closer to maybe the beginning of next week, we will -- if we've got it to what extent buttoned up as we could, I would work with the FBI and the city, and maybe we can come up with a timeline to be able to get you those information, kind of walk everyone through, from day one through -- I think it is -- it's extremely premature, and you're really putting this on some speculative grounds to ask some of those questions, because, again, it's only been 24 hours. I mean, can you imagine how far we've come in 24 hours? So --
(CROSSTALK)
LANDRY: Well, we go one at a time.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (Inaudible) to make Bourbon Street safer tonight than it was New Year's Eve? Are temporary bombers being brought in to block off the street, and why weren't those used on New Year's Eve?
LANDRY: Well, look, here is what I'm going to say. Every time some bad guy does something like this, there is what we call an after action review, because again, nothing is 100 percent. We have reinforced the area. We have deployed some additional types of assets.
[11:55:00] I personally -- they -- it's up to the city or other -- I don't like to give specific because I don't like to tell the enemy what we got. But, I can tell you, we're in better shape than we were before.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We have time here for two more questions.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Inaudible) Mandeville scene and some neighbors at that site told us they smelled smoke early in the morning. Was there a fire there, any kind of burning happening? Do you still believe that part happened after the suspect was caught?
RAIA: Yeah. That's great. Yeah. I'll move to -- I do want to address the suicide vest question. I want to kill that one right away. There was no evidence that the subject was wearing a suicide event -- suicide vest at all. So, I will turn the Mandeville stuff over to ATF.
JACKSON: As to the fire at the Mandeville scene, so, our third working theory now is that the fire started after Jabbar was already deceased. There is a lot of different ways that can happen. You could have different time devices. You could have a long cord that extended that time. You could also have pressure cookers that were put on top the stove filled with gasoline and then it went off. There is a lot of different ways to do it, but that is why our ATF national response team is here to answer those questions and get that investigative lead back, back to our team. So, more to come on that. We're still processing that scene. We're out there right now.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (Inaudible) how he became radicalized over all of this time. What brought him to Bourbon Street, do we understand? Was there any international travel involved? What led him down this path to this sort of rationalization?
RAIA: Sure. A lot of questions we're still asking ourselves. We know that he specifically picked out Bourbon Street, not quite sure why. I mean, I think one can assume that it was lots of people New Year's Eve, with a target for an attack. That's the stuff in the coming days, as far as that path to radicalization that we're really going to be digging into and making a priority of.
So, what I can tell you right now is that he was 100 percent inspired by ISIS. And so, we're digging through more of the social media, more interviews, working with some of our other partners to ascertain just how -- to ascertain a little bit more about that connection.
(CROSSTALK)
LANDRY: We're going to do one more --
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's actually for Christopher Raia.
LANDRY: I prefer, though, some of --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In order to reassure people, would you be able to explain the analysis and evidence that has led to this most recent understanding that he was a lone actor and that there is, at this point, at least, from your understanding, no further danger to the public?
RAIA: Sure. Sure. I think a lot of that, multiple interviews, the hundreds of interviews that we've conducted so far, the social media review that we've done of his accounts, the five -- what we -- by my count now, the five devices we have, the three cell phones and the two laptops, been able to initially triage or go through that, and there is just nothing to indicate through call records, through anything on those devices, through interviews, through anything in our systems, that he was aided in this attack by anybody.
And again, I have to caveat, like the governor said, this is 24 hours into it, and that could change. But, right now, we've got a much better picture and much more confidence on what we were dealing with than we were just 24 hours back.
(CROSSTALK)
LANDRY: Look, thank you all so very much. Again, we are going to try to get y'all as much information as possible. So, any additional information will be put out through press releases. Thank you so very much.
ASHER: All right. You've just been listening to a live press conference with the mayor of New Orleans, the governor of Louisiana, and the person you see there who is crouching down is Christopher Raia, Deputy Assistant Director of the FBI. We got a lot of information from Mr. Raia in terms of the investigation. He talked about the fact that there are now thousands, at least 1,000 agents and officers sifting through mountains of data, of surveillance video, every piece of evidence, interviews as well, looking for more information about this potential suspect. He declared that this was, make no mistake, an act of terrorism, in terms of what happened in New Orleans on New Year's Day, that it was premeditated. He referred to it as an act of evil.
He also emphasized that, look, this investigation is barely 24-hours- old. So, there is so much information still coming thick and fast, so much in terms of what we don't know at this point in time. But, I think the biggest piece of news we got from this press conference is the fact that this suspect, 42-year-old, Shamsud-Din Jabbar, acted alone. He said that there was no one else involved. Obviously, there has been some discussion about the attack that we saw in Las Vegas outside that Trump hotel, and whether or not the two were linked, given various similarities. The FBI now is saying that the suspect here acted alone, and he also gave a timeline in terms of what happened. He said the suspect rented an F-150 on December 30th and drove from --
