A driver in a pickup truck flying an ISIS flag who officials said was “hell-bent on carnage” sped through a crowd of pedestrians in New Orleans’ bustling French Quarter district, killing 15 and injuring 30 in an act being investigated as a New Year’s Day terrorist attack.
The FBI said the driver of the vehicle was dead after a shoot-out with police. He has been preliminarily identified as 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Jabbar, law enforcement officials told NBC News.
The attack occurred around 3:15 a.m. Wednesday along Bourbon Street, with crowds in the city ballooning in anticipation for tonight's Sugar Bowl that was postponed to Thursday, Jan 2. Fifteen people were killed.
“He was hell-bent on creating the carnage and the damage that he did,” Police Commissioner Anne Kirkpatrick said.
“It was very intentional behavior. This man was trying to run over as many people as he could,” Kirkpatrick said.
The driver was killed in a firefight with police following the attack, the FBI said. After the vehicle came to a stop, he emerged from the truck and opened fire on responding officers, New Orleans police said. Officers returned fire, striking and killing him, police said.
Jabber, a U.S.-born citizen from Texas who was an Army veteran, had a black ISIS flag affixed to the hitch of the pickup truck he allegedly drove into the crowd.
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President Joe Biden lauded New Orleans law enforcement for its "brave and swift" action to prevent "even greater death and injury." He vowed full support to investigate what he called an "horrific incident."
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Biden later addressed the nation, saying "I want you to know I grieve with you. Our nation grieves with you. We're going to stand with you as you mourn and as you heal in the weeks to come."
The president said that the FBI told him that just hours before the attack, the suspect posted videos to social media "indicating that he was inspired by ISIS, expressing a desire to kill."
Biden also noted that “the investigation is continuing to be active, and no one should jump to conclusions.” He said he would keep the country "fully contemporaneously informed."
The FBI said in a statement that it was heading an investigation “with our partners to investigate this as an act of terrorism.” At a news conference, New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell described the killings at Bourbon and Canal streets as a “terrorist attack."
Guns and pipe bombs were found in the vehicle, according to a Louisiana State Police intelligence bulletin obtained by The Associated Press. The devices, which were concealed within coolers, were wired for remote detonation, the bulletin said, and a corresponding remote control was discovered inside the vehicle.
The FBI said other potential explosive devices were also located in the French Quarter. According to the intelligence bulletin, surveillance footage captured three men and a woman placing one of multiple improvised explosive devices.
The revelation could help explain why officials at a Wednesday news conference said that they were aggressively hunting for additional suspects and did not believe Jabbar acted alone.
“We’re aggressively running down every lead, including those of his known associates," said Alethea Duncan, an assistant special agent in charge of the FBI’s New Orleans field office,
"That’s why we need the public’s help. We’re asking if anybody has any interactions with Shamsud Din Jabbar in the last 72 hours that you contact us," she said at an afternoon news conference. "The FBI is asking the public’s help. We’re asking anyone who has information, video or pictures to provide it to the FBI.”
A man who witnessed the carnage on Bourbon Street described a harrowing scene, with bodies left "horribly disfigured" lying on the street.
"It was unbelievable," Jimmy Cothran told NBC News in a phone interview this morning as he described scenes that could only be compared to "a movie."
Cothran said he was walking from Bourbon Street toward Canal Street when he noticed a "lot of commotion" and ducked off into a nightclub. Suddenly, he said, a group of women ran inside, pushing back security and hiding under tables.
"We live here and unfortunately, our first thoughts were somebody's shooting or chasing them," he said. Cothran said he ran upstairs, knowing the club had a balcony, only to witness a horrific scene, with the bodies of victims laying on the ground.
"Two looked to be at least alive. I wouldn't say survivable but at least alive," he said.
Others appeared to be "graphically deceased," with one having tire tracks visible on his body. "It just kept going," he said. "Like, every eye shot, body, body, body, body."
A woman who said she was "coming through the intersection" said everything happened "so quickly."
"The guy in the pickup truck just punched the gas and mowed over the barricade and hit a petty cab passenger," she told NBC News as her voice began to catch with emotion. "And there were just bodies and the screams. I mean, you can't un-think about, you know, un-hear that. It was chaos."
Investigators are trying to determine if Jabbar was firing it into the crowd with a rifle while running people over, officials briefed on the investigation told NBC News.
NOLA Ready, the city's emergency preparedness department, said the injured had been taken to five local hospitals.
Car-sharing company Turo said it is “heartbroken” by the violence in New Orleans and Las Vegas, in which rental vehicles were used.
“We are actively partnering with law enforcement authorities as they investigate both incidents,” the company said.
“We do not believe that either renter involved in the Las Vegas and New Orleans attacks had a criminal background that would have identified them as a security threat,” it said.
President-elect Donald Trump said his administration would "fully support" the city of New Orleans in its investigation of the attack.
"Our hearts are with all of the innocent victims and their loved ones, including the brave officers of the New Orleans Police Department," Trump said.
Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry called the incident a "horrific act of violence" in a post on X and said he was praying for the victims.
Officials said earlier that they expected the city to be busy as locals and visitors rang in the new year. New Orleans Police Department said it would be staffed at 100% and would draft in another 300 officers to help keep the peace.
The attack is the latest example of a vehicle being used as a weapon to carry out mass violence, a trend that has alarmed law enforcement officials and that can be difficult to protect against.
A 50-year-old Saudi doctor plowed into a Christmas market teeming with holiday shoppers in the German city of Magdeburg last month, killing four women and a 9-year-old boy. A man who drove his SUV through a Christmas parade in suburban Milwaukee in 2021 is serving a life sentence after a judge rejected arguments from him and his family that mental illness drove him to do it. Six people were killed.
An Islamic extremist was sentenced last year to 10 life sentences for killing eight people with a truck on a bike path in Manhattan on Halloween in 2017. Also in 2017, a self-proclaimed admirer of Adolf Hitler slammed his car into counterprotesters at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia and is now serving a life sentence.
NBC News contributed to this report.
