Flowers are placed Saturday, Jan. 4, 2025, at a memorial site on Bourbon Street in New Orleans near where 14 people were killed early Wednesday in a terrorist attack. The large yellow barrier is one of four that were placed on each side of hydraulic gate installed across Bourbon Street a day after Shamsud-Din Jabbar sped down three blocks before crashing and being killed in a shootout with police. (Greg LaRose/Louisiana Illuminator)
NEW ORLEANS – Mayor LaToya Cantrell said Sunday she has asked the Biden administration to provide a “tactical expert” who can evaluate vulnerable areas of the city ahead of the major events, drawing hundreds of thousands of visitors, it will host in the coming weeks.
Super Bowl LIX will take place Feb. 9 at the Superdome, but Carnival season officially starts Monday. Several parades will roll through New Orleans streets through Mardi Gras (March 4), and larger-than-average crowds are expected regularly in the French Quarter, where a terrorist raced down Bourbon Street in a pickup truck early Jan. 1, killing 14 people and injuring 37 others.
The mayor and Gov. Jeff Landry joined officials with the FBI and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms to provide an update to reporters Sunday morning on their investigation of Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, of Texas, who was killed in a shootout with police after his deadly attack.
Cantrell was asked about multiple news reports that indicate the new traffic barriers, or bollards, the city is installing in the French Quarter are not strong enough to prevent an attack similar to what happened Wednesday morning. The stainless steel posts that are being replaced had been removed ahead of New Year’s Eve and the Sugar Bowl, which had been scheduled for Jan. 1, allowing Jabbar to lethally speed through three blocks of Bourbon Street before crashing into a lift vehicle.
“What we’re wanting to do is to ensure that — boots on the ground with that expert advice — to determine whether or not these bollards that you’re talking about are sufficient,” the mayor said. “We’re also asking if they’re not, we’re looking for … how and what and where do they need to be placed.”
City contractors have already installed the receptacles for the new bollards at several intersections along Bourbon Street.
Cantrell also said the city, in conjunction with the governor, wants to have Mardi Gras given a federal level-one Special Assessment Event Rating (SEAR). The designation would bring with it “extensive federal interagency support, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Mardi Gras currently has a SEAR level two rating, which the mayor said she has pushed to raise since 2019.
The mayor is expected to be among the local, state and federal officials who will meet with President Joe Biden when he and first lady Jill Biden come to New Orleans Monday to visit with victims’ families.
FBI details Jabbar’s travel
Lyonel Myrthil, the FBI’s special agent in charge of its New Orleans office, said the agency has confirmed that Jabbar traveled to Cairo, Egypt, for four weeks from June to July last year, and then went to Ontario, Canada.
Investigators want to determine if he had contact with anyone in those locations as well as in the Atlanta and Tampa, Florida, areas, which Lyonel said Jabbar also visited over the past year.
Jabbar also made two trips to New Orleans before arriving on New Year’s Eve, according to the FBI, visiting in October and November. Myrthil shared video footage he said Jabbar recorded using the camera in a pair of Meta glasses as he rode a bicycle through the French Quarter during his October trip.
Jabbar was wearing Meta glasses when police killed him early Wednesday, but Myrthil said there is no indication Jabbar was recording or live-streaming video during his attack.
Additional video shared at Sunday’s news conference showed Jabbar walking through the French Quarter to place ice chests along Bourbon Street. Someone is also seen moving the cooler Jabbar placed at Bourbon and St. Peter Street one block to the intersection of Bourbon and Orleans Street. Myrthil said the individual did so unwittingly and is not considered an accomplice.
Joshua Jackson, who leads the ATF’s New Orleans branch, confirmed that a remote detonating device was recovered from Jabbar’s truck, but it wasn’t the sophisticated type available only to the military. The “electric match” or “hobby switch” Jabbar planned to use is readily available to the public, and it would have succeeded in detonating the homemade explosive devices had police not stopped Jabbar as soon as they did, Jackson said.
Jabbar’s choice of an electric switch “is just indicative of his inexperience and lack of understanding how that material might be set off,” Jackson said.
Federal investigators have determined the material used to make the bombs based on tests conducted in the field in the French Quarter, at the short-term rental house where Jabbar is believed to have made the bombs and at his mobile home in Houston, Jackson said. Additional tests are being conducted at FBI labs to confirm their makeup.
The material is available in the U.S., and Jackson said there is no indication early in the investigation that he obtained any explosive materials from overseas.
The semi-automatic 9 mm handgun Jabbar used in the shootout with law enforcement was recovered along with a semi-automatic .308-caliber rifle in his truck. Jackson said Jabbar bought the rifle Dec. 19 from a private seller in Arlington, Texas, in a transaction that is permissible under state law. The seller had no prior relationship with Jabbar and knew nothing about his planned attack in New Orleans, Jackson said.
More timeline details
Investigators have determined Jabbar visited multiple gun shops in Texas before buying his 9 mm handgun Dec. 31.
Myrthil said Jabbar entered Louisiana around 2:30 p.m. that afternoon and rented the Ford F-150 Lightning electric pickup he used in his attack in Gonzales at approximately 9 p.m.
Jabbar was seen coming and going from the rental house on Mandeville Street, about 2 miles from where the attack occurred, and left for good at 12:15 a.m. Wednesday, according to federal investigators.
Jackson said the ATF has determined Jabbar attempted to burn down the house just before departing because a digital thermostat inside switched the air conditioning system inside from heating to cooling at 12:17 a.m. The fire originated inside a linen closet but did not spread because it ran out of oxygen. Jabbar had poured gasoline throughout the house and left a half-gallon fuel can in the hallway that connected all of its rooms.
The purpose of the fire could have been to destroy evidence Jabbar left behind or create a distraction while he executed his plan, Jackson said. A neighbor called 911 to report smelling smoke at 5:18 a.m., about five hours after investigators believe the fire was set.
French Quarter surveillance video shows Jabbar parking his truck at 12:41 a.m. and walking to Royal and Gov. Nicholls streets. He placed the first cooler at Bourbon and St. Peter shortly afterward. Nearly an hour later, the cooler is seen being moved by someone unaware of the contents inside.
At 2:20 a.m, Jabbar is seen leaving a cooler at Bourbon and Toulouse streets. A third improvised bomb was found inside an ice chest in Jabbar’s truck. Authorities were able to safely neutralize all of the devices once discovered later Wednesday morning.
At 3:15 a.m., Jabbar hastily turned his truck from Canal Street to Bourbon to begin his murderous assault.
Assistance center opens for families, first responders
The FBI has opened an in-person family assistance center for relatives of the victims at St. Martin de Porres Catholic Church, 5621 Elysian Fields Ave.
In addition to providing needed support, Myrthil said FBI personnel have recovered hundreds of personal items from the attack scene they wish to return to victims’ families.
The center will be open until 7 p.m. Sunday and then from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. weekdays for as long as necessary, he said.
Cantrell said she received approval from the federal government for first responders, French Quarter employees and witnesses to the attack to receive services from the FBI center.
Gov. Landry announced that all 14 people killed in the attack will be honored with an official, individual day in their memory through Jan. 23.
Chris Raia, deputy FBI director for counterterrorism, told reporters that information from the public has been instrumental in filling gaps in the ongoing investigation and previous attacks over the past 20 years. Over the past year, such information has helped federal agencies disrupt terrorists’ plans in Oklahoma City and New York City, he said.
In addition to its New Orleans-based staff, the FBI has sent more than 200 agents to the city to assist with processing evidence, victim assistance and investigation leads and tips.
Louisiana Illuminator is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Louisiana Illuminator maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Greg LaRose for questions: info@lailluminator.com.
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