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Officials Provide Update on New Orleans Attack Investigation. Aired 11:30a-12p ET

Aired January 02, 2025 - 11:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[11:30:01]

CHRISTOPHER RAIA, FBI DEPUTY ASSISTANT DIRECTOR: We have also forward-deployed 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.

So far, we have received just over 400 tips from the public, and that information is being followed up on both -- 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 30.

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 1:29 a.m. and the last at 3:02 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, we have a couple 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 off 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 attack 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 have 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 items -- two other -- as I said before, two 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. The IED -- that includes -- the IED was inside a cooler and many people stopped and looked at the cooler and then continued on their way.

[11:35:28]

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 1-800-CALL-FBI or send digital tips to FBI.gov/BourbonStreetattack.

Early 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's 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 will preface -- as I close, I will 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 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 have only been on the ground here a short time, I also want to express this sincere appreciation for our partners here, which include the U.S. attorney's office, HSI, ATF, the New Orleans P.D., 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, ATF SPECIAL AGENT IN CHARGE: And 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.

There's our ATF Special Response Team. This is a tactical team capable 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 were able, ATF was able to tap in to Emergency Support Function 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 to and to -- up to 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 the 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, it will be hard for the families and friends who suffered during this event. So our victim witness coordinators are working with the FBI, the city of New Orleans coordinators to provide resources to these folks out here.

[11:40:01]

And as we move forward, ATF will be committed. We will work with the investigative team moving this investigation forward, but also we will 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.

LATOYA CANTRELL (D), MAYOR OF NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA: 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're resilient.

And as I stated on yesterday, my focus in terms of a priority has been on our victims. As you have heard that, yes, the FBI was able to clear Bourbon Street, and what that meant also for me in 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 cleared and, again, attending to our victims.

I walked by each one and I did the sign of the cross in my own way, because reverence, again, is important. So while we have been able to have Bourbon Street returned 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 2:00 a.m. It was completed before 8:00 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 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.

[11:45:00]

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, 3:00 p.m. So we're working towards 2:30 p.m. But, prior to game time, the kickoff, 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.

GOV. JEFF LANDRY (R-LA): In closing, I want to rest people assure that 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 there 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 the 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 you me, we care about each one of the lives that were lost in the city. 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 and this great country.

With that, I will take any questions.

QUESTION: 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's what I want -- I want to remind everyone, like, I worked it. I was a 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 asked the media for patience. We get information, like I said, putting it -- no one dumps a 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 you something, because, over the last decade, law enforcement has taken it on the chin unfairly.

[11:50:04]

And there are great men and women serving in the FBI, in ATF, in Louisiana State Police, in New Orleans P.D. 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.

But guess? What we're doing here is something that I think is important. It's called transparency. And, look, something may change again. Here's 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, put it eloquently as could be said. In a lot of these instances -- I also had the opportunity to deploy to BOSBOMB. And I will tell you, this is almost carbon copy to BOSBOMB 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 we correct.

And, in this particular incident, you heard the resources that we brought, that the other state and locals have brought. We have 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's been hundreds and hundreds of leads done just in 24 hours.

We're confident at this point that there is no accomplices. And I will 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 -- looking inside the coolers, right?

Well, we didn't know that at first. We had to kind of track all that down and put that to rest. So that's just an example of 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)

QUESTION: The updated death toll, I just wanted to double-check, 14, not 15?

(CROSSTALK)

RAIA: Yes, 14, and then the shooter himself would be 15 total, to include the shooter.

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: The IEDs. The IEDs. Were the IEDs pipe bombs? And have you discovered a remote dead detonator anywhere?

And when you said that he plant -- you have surveillance footage of the suspect planting those IEDS. What time, roughly, were they planted?

RAIA: Yes, those -- roughly a couple of hours. I don't have the exact times in front of me, a couple hours prior to the attack, probably after midnight, after midnight. I want to say 1:00 or 2:00 in the morning, but I can't.

QUESTION: So, he left 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)

QUESTION: Were there sweeps being done on Bourbon Street? Would there have been canines out on New Year's Eve? Would there have been bomb sweeps done...

(CROSSTALK)

LANDRY: Look, I think...

QUESTION: ... regular precautions?

LANDRY: Let me just say this. And either Joe or Rob will correct me.

Look, a bomb dog doesn't operate like a drug dog, right? They -- on Bourbon Street, there's a lot of senses, 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 have been doing, what they have been doing, it's 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 to the beginning of next week, we will -- if we have 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 us 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 have come in 24 hours?

(CROSSTALK)

LANDRY: Hold on, hold on, hold on. Well, we will go one at a time.

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE) New Year's Eve. Were temporary bollards being brought in to block off the street, and why weren't those used on New Year's Eve?

LANDRY: Well, look, here's what I'm going to say.

Every time some bad guy does something like this, there's 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.

[11:55:17]

I personally -- they -- it's up to the city or other -- I don't like to give specifics, 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 for two more questions.

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: Can you speak to the Mandeville scene?

LANDRY: And then we will go to you.

QUESTION: 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?

RAIA: Yes, great...

QUESTION: Do you still believe that fire happened after the suspect was killed?

LANDRY: You want to...

RAIA: That's correct.

(CROSSTALK)

RAIA: Yes, I will move to ATF. 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 vest at all.

So I will turn the Mandeville stuff over to ATF.

JACKSON: As to the fire at the Mandeville scene, so our working theory now is that the fire started after Jabbar was already deceased. There's a lot of different ways that could 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 of the stove filled with gasoline, and then it went off. There's 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 to our team.

So, more to come on that. We're still processing that scene. We're out there right now.

(CROSSTALK)

QUESTION: What do we understand about he became radicalized over all of this time? What brought him to Bourbon Street, do we understand? Was there any international traveling involved? What led him down this path to this sort of radicalization?

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 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: Whoa. Whoa. We're going to do one more. Kate? Kate?

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Right there. You have had your hand up for a while.

QUESTION: Thank you. I appreciate it.

LANDRY: Yes.

QUESTION: It's actually for Special Agent Raia.

Sir...

LANDRY: I prefer those, I would tell you.

(LAUGHTER) QUESTION: 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, hundreds of interviews that we have conducted so far, the social media review that we have 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, it's just 24 hours into it, and that could change.

But, right now, we have got a much better picture and much more confidence on what we were dealing with than we were just 24 hours ago.

(CROSSTALK)

LANDRY: All right, look, thank you all. Thank you all so very much.

Again, again, again, we are going to try to get you all as much information as possible, so any additional information will be put out through press releases.

Thank you so very much.

QUESTION: Mayor...

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN HOST: You have been watching the latest update from local and federal officials in the wake of the New Year's morning attack on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, an attack that left 14 individuals dead, more than 30 individuals hurt.

We now know, in some significant developments, that what was concerning a lot of officials, both federal and local yesterday, is no longer the case in terms of the belief that there is no other individual involved, in the plot for this attack, the fact that they believe at this point he acted alone.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RAIA: This was an act of terrorism. It was premeditated and an evil act.

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 have already been briefed on.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: The FBI also says that, as of now, there is not a -- quote -- "definitive link" between the New Orleans attack and a Tesla Cybertruck explosion outside a Trump Hotel in Las Vegas just hours later.