An ISIS-inspired attacker shattered New Year’s celebrations in New Orleans, Louisiana’s French Quarter, early Wednesday, January 1, 2025, killing 15 people and injuring 35 others after posting videos pledging allegiance to the terrorist organization and “expressing a desire to kill,” President Biden revealed in televised remarks.
The 3:15 a.m. rampage began when Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, a former U.S. Army veteran, drove a rented Ford F-150 Lightning through crowds of revelers on Bourbon Street. The attack culminated in a deadly shootout when Jabbar, wearing body armor and armed with a rifle equipped with a silencer, emerged from his crashed vehicle and opened fire on police officers, wounding two before being killed by return fire.
Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said on social media that Jabbar rented the electric pickup truck in Houston on December 30, setting his deadly plan in motion. He exploited a crucial security gap in the French Quarter – the recent removal of permanent safety bollards taken down in November for a planned three-month infrastructure upgrade.
“We had a car there, we had barriers there, we had officers there, and he still got around,” New Orleans Police Department Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said. “This man was trying to run over as many people as he possibly could. He was hell-bent on creating the carnage and the damage that he did,”
A 2017 memo reviewed by CBS News showed city officials had specifically warned about vehicle attacks, citing similar incidents in Nice, London, and New York City.
When they heard the crash, Iowa tourists Jim and Nicole Mowrer had just finished watching the city’s fireworks display. “Once it was past us, we did hear gunfire, saw police running that direction,” Nicole Mowrer recalled. “Once the gunfire stopped, we stayed in the alcove until the gunfire stopped, came out into the street, and came across a lot of — several people who had been hit.”
FBI Special Agent Alethea Duncan announced that investigators discovered an elaborate terror plot extending beyond the vehicle attack. Two pipe bombs packed with nails were found in blue coolers inside Jabbar’s truck, along with an ISIS flag and additional weapons. At least one other improvised explosive device was discovered and detonated in the French Quarter. A fire later broke out at an Airbnb in the St. Roch area where Jabbar had been staying, prompting investigations by the FBI, Homeland Security, and bomb squad teams.
“We do not believe that Jabbar was solely responsible,” Duncan stated, although no foreign terror organization has claimed responsibility for the attack. Jabbar, who served in the Army from 2006 to 2020, including a deployment to Afghanistan, has been employed by Deloitte since 2021.
Among those killed were Matthew Tenedorio, an audiovisual technician for the Caesars Superdome; Nicole Perez, 27, a recently promoted deli manager and mother of a 4-year-old son; Reggie Hunter, 37, a store manager and father of two from Baton Rouge; Tiger Bech, 28, a former All-Ivy Princeton football player who worked as a junior bonds trader; Nikyra Cheyenne Dedeaux, 18, an aspiring nurse from Gulfport, Mississippi; Kareem Badawi, a 2024 graduate of Episcopal School of Baton Rouge; and Hubert Gauthreaux, 21, an alumnus of Archbishop Shaw High School.
The attack postponed the Sugar Bowl college football playoff game between Georgia and Notre Dame at the nearby Superdome. The game was rescheduled for Thursday following comprehensive bomb sweeps of the stadium.
New Orleans Coroner Dr. Dwight McKenna said identifying all victims would take several days as authorities work to notify next of kin. The FBI’s Evidence Response Team continues processing the sprawling crime scene, with a digital tip line established to seek information about Jabbar’s activities in the 72 hours leading up to the attack and any potential accomplices.
