Official announcements from the FBI or the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives

New Orleans Attacker Kills 14 on Bourbon Street Using Rare Explosive in Failed ISIS-Inspired Bombs

Jan 5, 2025, 01:59 PM

Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a 42-year-old Texas-born Army veteran, perpetrated the New Orleans attack on New Year's Eve, using a very rare explosive compound in two homemade bombs that failed to detonate. The attack, inspired by ISIS, resulted in the deaths of 14 people when Jabbar drove a pickup truck into a crowd on Bourbon Street. The explosive compound has never been used in any U.S. or European terrorist attack or incident before. Federal investigators are examining how Jabbar, who set fire to a short-term rental house on Mandeville Street to destroy evidence, acquired the knowledge to create this explosive and are investigating the source of the materials found in his garage. The bombs were placed in coolers, and Jabbar intended to use a transmitter to detonate them, but they did not explode. The FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are involved in the ongoing investigation, which has not found evidence of accomplices. Evidence recovered from the fire included precursors for bomb-making material and a privately made device suspected of being a silencer for a rifle.