The ISIS-loving driver who killed 14 people by plowing into a crowded New Orleans street on New Year’s planned to simultaneously detonate two bombs he had planted nearby — taking advantage of the city’s diminished safety measures compared to previous years.
Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, intended to use a transmitter — which was stashed in his F150 truck — to set off the two IEDs he placed along Bourbon Street, the FBI and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives revealed Friday.
The devices were never detonated, though it is unclear if it was due to malfunction or that they had never been activated.
Investigators also found bomb-making materials inside the short-term rental home on Mandeville Street — which Jabbar tried to set ablaze to hide his deranged plans, according to the FBI.
“ATF also determined that Jabbar set a small fire in the hallway and strategically placed accelerants throughout the house in his effort to destroy it and other evidence of his crime,” the FBI said.
“After Jabbar left the residence, the fire burned to a point that it extinguished itself prior to spreading to other rooms. The ATF investigation revealed that when the [New Orleans Fire Department] arrived at the scene, the fire was smoldering, allowing for the recovery of evidence, including pre-cursors for bomb-making material and a privately made device suspected of being a silencer for a rifle.”
Federal authorities searching Jabbar’s home in Houston, Texas, also uncovered a bomb-making workbench, a stash of chemical bottles and a long list of compounds used in bomb-making — as well as a Quran propped open to a page about “slaying” in the name of Allah, The Post exclusively reported this week.
The killer appeared to have bought a cooler — which he used to store the bombs — in Vidor, Texas, and gun oil from a store in Sulphur, Louisiana just hours before the attack. However, he booked his rental for the pick-up truck he used to ram into the crowd on Nov. 14, suggesting he may have been plotting the attack for more than six weeks.
The shocking updates come as it was revealed that New Orleans had fewer security measures in place in parts of the French Quarter than in years past — making it easier for the ISIS-flag-waving attacker to carry out his plans.
During previous New Year’s Eve celebrations, the city had installed steel columns known as bollards that prevent vehicles from accessing Bourbon Street. They could retract to allow for delivery vans and emergency vehicles — until they stopped working reliably.
The bollards had been ripped from the ground for the holiday so they could be replaced ahead of the Super Bowl. The police department instead positioned cruisers at intersections along the party strip, a move that proved not as reliable as the steel columns.
Authorities say 14 people were killed when Jabbar drove the Ford pick-up into the crowd. The coroner’s office on Friday listed the cause of death for the victims as “blunt force injuries.”
The city has identified all but one of the victim’s identities. The publicly released names are Brandon Taylor, 43; Elliot Wilkinson, 40; Nikyra Cheyenne Dedeaux, 18; Tiger Bech, 28; Reggie Hunter, 37; Nicole Perez, 27; Kareem Badawi; Hubert Gauthreaux, 21; Matthew Tenedorio, 25; Drew Dauphin, 26; Billy DiMaio, 25; and Terrence Kennedy, 63.
About 30 people were injured and 16 remain hospitalized, half in the intensive care unit.
Jabbar was also killed that night in a shootout with police. Cops say he charged out of the truck wearing a ballistic vest and helmet and fired at police, wounding at least two officers.
The ex-Army soldier’s motives for the deadly attack are still unclear, though an ISIS flag was found in his truck and he proclaimed his support for the terrorist group in a series of chilling videos posted to Facebook earlier Tuesday.
“I wanted to record this message for my family. I wanted you to know that I joined ISIS earlier this year,” Jabbar said in one, according to The New York Times.
“I don’t want you to think I spared you willingly,” he said, adding that he had previously conceived of organizing a “celebration” for them and then making everyone “witness the killing of the apostates.”
According to the Times, Jabbar had become increasingly isolated over the past few years after moving into a Muslim neighborhood, though the community said he was noticeably absent from religious services.
Jabbar went through three divorces, which by 2022 meant he was playing more than a quarter of his monthly salary in alimony and child support for his three children, records show.
The third divorce appeared to be bitter, with his ex-wife asking the court to order Jabbar from making threatening phone calls or to harm either her or their son. Another ex-wife moved to limit his contact with their children, seemingly due to Jabbar’s increasingly unstable behavior.
The family told the paper that Jabbar had begun to unravel over the past year. He began posting extremist religious takes online, including that the release of “Get Rich or Die Tryin’,” a rap album by 50 Cent, was connected to a series of murders in his neighborhood.
The attack marks the deadliest ISIS-inspired assault on U.S. soil in years, laying bare what federal officials have warned is a resurgent international terrorism threat.
With Post Wires
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