Police and fire trucks are seen outside a house fire on Mandeville Street that may be connected to the mass casualty Bourbon Street attack where at least 15 people were killed when a person allegedly drove into the crowd in the early morning hours of New Year’s Day on Jan. 1, 2025 in New Orleans. (Chris Graythen/Getty Images)
NEW ORLEANS — A fire at a home in the St. Roch neighborhood Wednesday morning is connected to the terror attack that took place just minutes away in the French Quarter, according to Louisiana’s attorney general.
At least 15 people were killed and 35 injured when Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, of Texas drove a pickup truck around a police barricade across Bourbon Street, striking dozens of pedestrians who had been celebrating the arrival of the New Year. Jabbar was killed in a shootout with law enforcement that wounded two New Orleans police officers.
The FBI is investigating the incident as a terror attack and believe multiple people were involved. A flag for the jihadist group Islamic State hung from a pole attached to the trailer hitch of the truck Jabbar drove, authorities said.
Authorities have said Jabbar was a U.S. Army veteran from Texas. He graduated from Georgia State University in 2017 with a degree in computer information systems and held a real estate license from 2018-23. Online records also show that he worked with the financial services firm Deloitte.
Around two hours after Jabbar plowed through the portion of Bourbon Street, first responders were called to a home in the 1300 block of Mandeville Street, about 2 miles away. Firefighters, police and bomb squad technicians were summoned to the address and reported a “small fire.” The scene remained cordoned off late Wednesday afternoon while investigators continued work in and around the house.
Attorney General Liz Murrill told WDSU-TV that the house fire is connected to the terror attack. “It tells us, one, they planned this out, two, they tried to cover this up,” Murrill said.
Agents are also reviewing surveillance video from the French Quarter that shows three men and one woman placing a home explosive device, the Associated Press reports. Murrill said video shows an explosive device being placed between a Louisiana State Police vehicle and a state Department of Wildlife and Fisheries unit. Both law enforcement agencies have supplemented local police patrols in New Orleans for the past several months.
This is a developing story that will be updated.