The New Orleans terrorist attacker visited the town twice within the weeks earlier than the assault and recorded video of the realm utilizing Meta good glasses, the FBI revealed Sunday.
Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, stayed at a rental residence in New Orleans on the finish of October and once more in November, simply weeks earlier than his attack on Bourbon Street, which killed 14 people. He wore the good glasses to file video as he rode a bicycle by way of the French Quarter, Lyonel Myrthil, the particular agent in control of the FBI’s New Orleans area workplace, mentioned Sunday.
“Meta glasses seem to appear to be common glasses, however they permit a consumer to file movies and images hand-free,” Myrthil mentioned. “They additionally enable the consumer to probably livestream by way of their video.”
Jabbar wore the glasses throughout his New Year’s Day assault, however they weren’t activated for a livestream, Myrthil mentioned. There was no indication Jabbar was recording the assault in any respect, although the glasses have been discovered on him.
Meta spokesperson Andy Stone informed NBC News that the corporate is “in contact with regulation enforcement on this matter.”
The FBI posted a compilation of the clips online, considered one of which incorporates Jabbar testing the glasses in a mirror and safety clips of him within the space earlier than the truck assault. The FBI blurred pictures of bystanders.
Jabbar, 42, was killed in a firefight with officers after he plowed by way of the busy strip with a rented truck early New Year’s Day. Investigators additionally discovered that he positioned two homemade bombs in the area earlier than the assault, neither of which detonated.
Authorities additionally consider Jabbar set hearth to a short-term rental home on Mandeville Street in New Orleans, the place bomb-making supplies have been discovered.
Video confirmed Jabbar inserting one improvised explosive gadget in a cooler at Bourbon and St. Peter streets at 1:53 a.m., which was moved later by unidentified individuals.
“From what we’ve noticed to date — what we’ve gathered by way of our investigation — is that they have been unwitting people who transfer the cooler from location to location with out information of what’s within the cooler,” Myrthil mentioned.
Jabbar positioned one other explosive roughly half-hour later in a distinct “bucket-type cooler,” authorities mentioned.
Two firearms have been additionally recovered, a semiautomatic pistol and a rifle. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives discovered the .308-caliber rifle was bought in a personal sale in Arlington, Texas, on Nov. 19.
The explosive materials recovered at Jabbar’s residence in Houston resembles frequent explosives corresponding to RDX, that are broadly accessible within the United States, Joshua Jackson, the particular agent in control of the ATF’s New Orleans area division, mentioned at Sunday’s information convention.
Federal authorities initially said Friday that field tests detected a rare explosive compound, R-Salt, within the two selfmade bombs in New Orleans and within the residence the place Jabbar stayed. R-Salt is a really uncommon compound that has not been used earlier than in terrorist assaults within the United States or Europe.
Jackson mentioned the FBI will conduct further testing of the explosive compound present in New Orleans. He mentioned officers consider further exams in an FBI lab will present that the explosive compound is, in actual fact, pure RDX.
The gadget itself was not distinctive in design, and Jabbar’s use of an electrical match as a substitute of a correct detonator indicated his inexperience with explosives, Jackson mentioned.
Jabbar, a Texas-born U.S. citizen and an Army veteran, said in videos posted online that he “joined ISIS earlier this yr.” He acted alone throughout the New Year’s Day assault, the FBI mentioned, and doesn’t seem to have any U.S.-based accomplices.
Myrthil informed reporters Sunday that the FBI remains to be investigating any of Jabbar’s associates, each home and overseas. A topic of additional inquiry is a visit Jabbar made to Cairo in 2023 and one other journey to Canada roughly every week after his return.
“Our brokers are getting solutions as to the place he went, who he met with and the way these journeys might or might not tie into his actions right here in our metropolis in New Orleans,” Myrthil mentioned.
