Footage from Meta glasses shows Shamsud-Din Jabbar scouting French Quarter months before ramming truck into crowd, killing 14
The FBI has released video footage of New Orleans attacker Shamsud-Din Jabbar apparently planning his deadly New Year’s Day attack. The perpetrator visited the city months prior to the atrocity, filming the streets with Meta smart glasses, according to the agency.
The nearly four-minute-long video, which has no sound, is a compilation of clips related to the January 1 attack on Bourbon Street in the city’s French Quarter. The footage comes from surveillance cameras in the area and from scenes Jabbar recorded on his Meta glasses. The FBI said he’d visited the city twice, in October and November, before staging the attack.
The first clip, dated October 31, shows Jabbar recording video from his Meta glasses while riding a bicycle through the French Quarter. In the second clip, also from October, Jabbar tests his Meta glasses by recording himself looking into a mirror at the home he rented.
The third clip, from the early hours of January 1, captures Jabbar leaving the first improvised explosive device (IED) inside a blue cooler at Bourbon Street and St Peter Street. The cooler was later moved a block away to Orleans Street by an unsuspecting bystander.
The fourth clip shows Jabbar placing a second IED in a “bucket-style” cooler at Bourbon and Toulouse Streets. In the fifth clip, surveillance footage shows Jabbar walking toward his truck to retrieve a second cooler; his brown long coat, which was later found in the truck at the scene, links him to the attack.
According to the investigators, the devices failed to detonate due to Jabbar’s inexperience with explosives.
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On January 1 at approximately 3:15 am local time, Jabbar drove a rented pickup truck onto Bourbon Street, intentionally plowing into a crowd of New Year’s revelers. The attack resulted in 14 deaths and numerous injuries. After crashing the vehicle, Jabbar exited and engaged in a firefight with police officers before being fatally shot.
A US citizen from Texas, he had a history of erratic behavior and had pledged allegiance to Islamic State in videos posted online shortly before the attack. Despite his claims, the FBI has found no evidence of direct contact between Jabbar and the terrorist group, suggesting he acted alone.
