UPDATE:The FBI has created a new page where the public can report information about Shamsud-Din Jabbar. The page includes new photos of Jabbar captured in the early morning hours of New Year's day, along with a photo of one of the ice chest IED's placed on Bourbon Street. This is the link to the poster: https://www.fbi.gov/wanted/seeking-info/bourbon-street-attack.
The FBI provided an update on the investigation into the New Orleans attack this morning.
Here are some critical points, according to Christopher Raia, Deputy Assistant Director of Counter Terrorism for the FBI:
- This was an act of terrorism.
- The suspect proclaimed his support for Isis on social media prior to the event.
- Investigators now believe the suspect was acting alone.
- There is no definitive link between this incident and the incident in Las Vegas.
- Anyone who knows the suspect, from Texas, from Louisiana, from the military, is asked to call the FBI so they can be interviewed.
- Only two IEDs found were functioning devices, and they were rendered safe.
- The FBI wants to talk to anyone who may have seen coolers in the quarter on New Year's Eve or New Year's Day - to hear what they saw.
- Bourbon Street has been released to the City of New Orleans, but teams are still actively processing a house in Mandeville.
"This was an act of terrorism. It was premeditated, an evil act. It's obviously a critical incident, and lots of tips come pouring in. We've been aggressively running down these tips and information. That takes time," Raia said.
He said agents across the country are following up on every lead they've found; more than 400 tips have been called in by the public, and those are being processed, he said.
Raia said he wanted to be very clear that "there is no defeinitive link between the attack here in NOLA and in Vegas."
There are federal specialists in HRT, bombs, crisis management, evidence response and victim support here in Louisiana to help with the investigation, he said. Law enforcement on the federal, state and local level are going through surveillance video from the quarter and surrounding areas, he added.
The suspect, Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, of Texas, was a US Citizen born in America and a US Army veteran. They've learned that he rented a truck in Texas on Monday and drove it from Houston to New Orleans on December 31. Between 1:30 a.m. and 3 a.m. on New Year's Day, he posted five videos on social media, expressing his support for Isis.
In one of those videos, he said he initially had planned to harm his family and friends, but he worried that the media coverage would focus on that and not see the Isis angle.
Raia said that the FBI does not believe that the public is in any danger around the French Quarter locations that they've cleared. Agents recovered three phones connected to Jabbar, as well as two lap tops, and they're being processed.
There were reports of mulitiple IEDs, but only two were found to be actual functioning devices, he said. They found Jabbar on surveillance placing the IEDs, in coolers. They also found video of folks looking at the coolers, and the FBI wants to talk to them, he said.
The FBI needs to talk to a lot of people.
"Jabbar was born in the United States, he was a military veteran. We have talked to a lot of people, and we still need to talk to some people. If you know him, if you worked with him, if you served in the military with him, if you saw him in New Orleans or in Texas, we need to talk to you," Raia said. "You may not think you have relevant information, but the information you have may tie into some of our active leads.
"We want to talk to anyone who was in the French Quarter on New Year's Eve or New Year's Day in those areas. Many people stopped and looked at these coolers, and we do not believe those people were involved, but we want to speak to them as witnesses. We want to know what they saw."
Raia also added that Bourbon Street has been cleared and turned back over to the City of New Orleans. Mayor LaToya Cantrell said the city started cleaning the area around 2 a.m. and finished later this morning.
If you can provide information about the quarter that night, or about the suspect, Shamsud-Din Jabbar, call www.fbi.gov/bourbonstreetattack or call 1-800-CALL-FBI.
Here's the video of the presser:
