Terror attack in New Orleans unrelated to Tesla explosion, FBI says

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The New Year’s Day attack in New Orleans was an “act of terrorism” but unrelated to the Tesla Cybertruck explosion in Las Vegas hours later, according to the FBI.

As the investigation continues The attack on New Orleans was in its early stages, the FBI said it believed the suspect, decorated US Army veteran Shamsud-Din Jabbar, was acting alone.

“It was a premeditated and malicious act,” FBI assistant director Christopher Raia said Thursday. “We are confident now that there are no accomplices (sic).”

There was also no “firm link between the attack in New Orleans and the one in Las Vegas” at this stage, Raia said.

Fourteen people were killed and 35 injured when a man drove a truck into a large crowd and opened fire in downtown New Orleans in the early hours of New Year’s Day. New. Jabbar was also killed in a shootout with the police.

The violence in New Orleans and the explosion in Las Vegas upset Americans at the end of a busy holiday season, raising concerns about crime in the United States, and Donald Trump. trying to blame Joe Biden’s policies for violence.

Biden was briefed Thursday on what the White House also called a terrorist attack.

The FBI said it was investigating Jabbar’s possible ties to terrorist organizations. On Wednesday, the agency found an Isis flag on his truck, as well as two “active” improvised explosive devices on the street, which law enforcement disabled, Raia said.

Three phones and two laptops linked to Jabbar have also been found in the investigation, and investigators say they have begun piecing together a timeline of the attack.

Jabbar had picked up a rented Ford F-150 truck in Houston, Texas, on December 30, and headed east to New Orleans the next day.

In Facebook videos posted on the road, Jabbar announced his support for Isis, and said he had initially planned to target family and friends, but “was concerned that the headlines would not focus on the war between of believers and non-believers”, Raia said.

The FBI said Jabber said he joined ISIS over the summer and wrote the will.

A few hours after his tragic attack in New Orleans, a Tesla Cybertruck exploded outside Trump’s hotel in Las Vegas.

On Thursday, Las Vegas sheriff Kevin McMahill said that investigators “don’t know” anyone involved in the case other than the driver of the Cybertruck, who was identified as Matthew Livelsberger, 37, and a decorated American soldier.

The driver had a gunshot wound to the head that police believe was self-inflicted before the explosion, McMahill said, standing in front of pictures of the Cybertruck’s charred remains.

Police found Livelsberger’s military identification, passport and credit cards, as well as a .50-caliber Desert Eagle semi-automatic pistol, a cell phone and a smartwatch.

The sheriff added that Tesla CEO Elon Musk has sent a team to Las Vegas to collect footage from cameras inside the Cybertruck.

No other motive has been established for the Las Vegas “bomb,” an FBI official said.

Kenny Cooper, US Center for Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in Las Vegas, said the “level of sophistication” of the Cybertruck bomb “is not what we would expect from someone with this type of military experience”.

Jabbar, a 42-year-old US citizen from Texas, was a US soldier who worked at Deloitte. The firm said Thursday that Jabbar had an “employee-level role” through 2021.

“We are outraged by this shameful and senseless act and are doing everything we can to assist the authorities in their investigation,” Deloitte added.

The US military said Jabbar served as a human resources and information technology specialist between 2007 and 2020. He was deployed to Afghanistan between February 2009 and January 2010.

The military also confirmed that Livelsberger was an active duty US soldier. At the time of his death, the master sergeant was assigned to the United States Army’s Special Operations Forces and was on authorized leave in Germany. McMahill said Livelsberger was a Green Beret, a member of the US military’s special forces.

Both Livelsberger and Jabbar were stationed at Fort Bragg (now Fort Liberty) in North Carolina, but there is no record of them having served there in the same unit or at the same time. said McMahill. There was also no evidence that they served together in Afghanistan, although investigators are continuing to look for any possible connection between the men.

Additional reporting by Felicia Schwartz in Washington