New Year’s festivities turned tragic in New Orleans early Wednesday when a man intentionally drove a truck into a crowd.
The resulting crash killed at least 14 people and injured more than 30, The Washington Post reported.
Officials consider the crash to be an intentional attack on New Year’s revelers, not an accident caused by an intoxicant like alcohol.
The suspect “was trying to run over as many people as he possibly could,” New Orleans Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said Wednesday, noting that he drove around barricades. “This is not a DUI situation.”
Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, was identified as the suspect midday Wednesday in an FBI statement.
“An ISIS flag was located in the vehicle, and the FBI is working to determine the subject’s potential associations and affiliations with terrorist organizations,” the statement said.
The FBI also noted potential improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, were found in the truck and in New Orleans’ French Quarter.
The Associated Press is reporting that the FBI does not believe the suspect acted alone.
“Surveillance footage captured three men and a woman placing one of multiple improvised explosive devices,” the AP reported.
Jabbar is a U.S. citizen and Army veteran from Texas, per the AP.
Terror in New Orleans
The FBI’s assistant special agent in charge for New Orleans, Alethea Duncan, initially said that the truck crash was not being considered a terrorist attack but that officers were looking into reports of “an improvised explosive device” being found in the same area of New Orleans, according to The Washington Post.
Then, around 7:30 a.m. MST, the FBI released a statement saying that the crash is being investigated as “an act of terrorism.”
“This morning, an individual drove a car into a crowd of people on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, killing a number of people and injuring dozens of others. The subject then engaged with local law enforcement and is now deceased. The FBI is the lead investigative agency, and we are working with our partners to investigate this as an act of terrorism,” the FBI statement said.
The New York Times reported that the statement was unusual because the FBI is usually not to so quick to mention terrorism. Wednesday’s move came after investigators found “a cooler containing an improvised bomb” by the truck used in the attack, the article said.
“The combination of a truck used as a weapon, along with the bomb, led investigators to believe that the perpetrator’s goal was to cause additional casualties on civilians,” The New York Times reported.
As the FBI statement noted, the suspect is believed to have died after engaging in firefight with law enforcement.
President Joe Biden has been briefed on the crash and offered support to the city, The Washington Post reported.
Sugar Bowl in New Orleans
New Orleans is set to host a College Football Playoff quarterfinal matchup between Georgia and Notre Dame at the Sugar Bowl.
The game was scheduled for Wednesday night, but around midday Wednesday it was postponed to Thursday.
The early morning crash took place at the intersection of Canal and Bourbon streets, near where the teams’ fans and even players are staying.
“Georgia’s team hotel is just two blocks from the intersection,” The Washington Post reported.
Kirkpatrick told reporters that the police officers in the city would work to ensure a safe game environment, per the AP.