Update, 2:40 p.m. ET: The death toll on the New Year’s Day attack in New Orleans has risen from 10 deaths to 15 deaths, according to ABC News, citing U.S. Representative Troy Carter. The FBI has not confirmed this statistic.
No victim names have been released to the public as of press time.
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Update, 1:41 p.m. ET: The FBI has identified a man named Shamsud-Din Jabbar as the attacker who killed at least 10 people and injured at least 30 more in New Orleans on Wednesday. Not much is known about him publicly as of press time, only that he is a 42-year-old U.S. citizen from Texas.
The agency states “an ISIS flag” was in the vehicle Jabbar used, a rented Ford pickup truck. The FBI also states it found “weapons and a potential IED” in the truck and “other potential IEDs were also located in the French Quarter” of New Orleans.
The FBI is treating the tragedy as “an act of terrorism” and says it is “aggressively running down all leads to identify any possible associates of the subject.”
10 Dead, 30 Injured After New Year’s Attack on New Orleans’s Bourbon Street
Original Story, 9:06 am ET: The assailant killed at least 10 people and injured at least 30 in the early hours of Wednesday morning in New Orleans, according to The Associated Press. A male suspect, whose name is not public yet, drove a pickup truck through a crowd on Bourbon Street around 3:15 a.m. local time.
The suspect is now dead following a firefight with police, per AP. The assailant shot two officers in the exchange; the newswire reports they are considered in “stable” condition.
FBI officials noted in an early morning press conference that they believe the assailant had an explosive device with him during the attack. However, they are still investigating the device in question and its specifics are unknown as of press time.
“It was very intentional behavior. This man was trying to run over as many people as he could.” NOLA police superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick told media. “He was hell-bent on creating the carnage and the damage that he did.”
Officials shut down Bourbon Street and Canal Street as the investigation continues on. Bourbon Street is considered one of the major party districts in the U.S. Tuesday night was New Year’s Eve, with the Louisiana tourist spot drawing major crowds, which obviously carried over into the early hours of New Year’s Day.
In addition to the New Year’s Eve crowds, New Orleans is also hosting the 2025 Sugar Bowl, a major college football game between the University of Georgia and the University of Notre Dame, on Wednesday night. This attack has led to safety concerns at the game, with local authorities vowing to increase security measures in the wake of the truck attack.
