BBC reported fifteen people were killed and dozens were injured after a man apparently inspired by the Islamic State group drove into large crowds in New Orleans, Louisiana, in the early hours of New Year's Day, authorities have said.
CCTV footage shows a white, Ford F-150 Lightning vehicle driving onto the pavement to get around a police car before hitting pedestrians.
However, the authorities described the act as “very intentional”, adding that the attacker - identified as Shamsud-Din Jabbar - was “hell-bent on creating the carnage and the damage that he did”.
New Orleans Police Chief Anne Kirkpatrick said: “This man was trying to run over as many people as he possibly could,”
Jabbar was also armed and fired on law enforcement, injuring two officers. He was then killed by police gunfire.
Whit Davis, from Shreveport, Louisiana, told the BBC that he was held in a bar with a large group in the aftermath of the attack while police secured the scene.
He said: “When they left, they ‘were walking past dead and injured bodies all over the street’.”
Who was Shamsud-Din Jabbar?
The FBI has named the assailant as 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Jabbar, an Army veteran and US citizen from Texas.
A flag associated with the Islamic State (IS) group was found in the vehicle he was driving and the FBI said it was investigating what affiliations Jabbar may have had with terrorist groups.
In an evening address, President Joe Biden said the FBI had briefed him on the attack. The suspect uploaded videos to social media "mere hours before the attack" indicating that he was inspired by IS and expressing a "desire to kill", Biden said.
Suspected improvised explosive devices were also found in the area.
A long gun with a "suppressive device" on it - acting as a silencer - was also recovered.
According to a now-removed LinkedIn profile, Jabbar had worked in various roles in the US Army, including in human resources and IT, before he was discharged. He was deployed to Afghanistan from February 2009 to January 2010.
In a YouTube video posted in 2020, Jabbar said his time in the military had taught him "the meaning of great service and what it means to be responsive and take everything seriously, dotting i's and crossing t's to make sure that things go off without a hitch".
He studied at Georgia State University from 2015 to 2017, graduating with a degree in computer information systems.
He was married twice. His first marriage ended in 2012 and his second lasted from 2017 to 2022.
He also appears to have worked in real estate, holding a licence that expired in 2021. He had a criminal record, relating to traffic offences and theft.
The pick-up truck he was driving was electric and believed to have been rented in Texas via an app called Turo.
Are there additional suspects?
The FBI said they believed the suspect had help in carrying out his attack, particularly in placing suspected explosive devices.
CBS reports that law enforcement has not yet released evidence of those accomplices.
Earlier reports said authorities were reviewing video footage, but CBS reported that the footage had been determined to only show bystanders.
Source: BBC
Bd-Pratidin English/ AM
