NEW ORLEANS – President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden will travel Monday to New Orleans to “grieve with the families and community members” following the New Year’s Day terror attack, the White House has announced.
The president is also expected to meet with officials in the city, where 14 people were killed and 37 injured when Shamsud-Bin Jabbar sped behind the wheel of a pickup truck into celebrating crowds on Bourbon Street. Police killed Jabbar in a shootout that ensued after he had covered three blocks of the French Quarter’s main drag.
After initially suspecting more people were involved with the attack, the FBI is now saying Jabbar acted alone. Authorities say he placed two ice chests with homemade explosive devices inside them further down Bourbon Street two hours before he plowed through revelers early Wednesday. Bomb-making materials were also found in the truck he had rented Monday in Houston and drove to New Orleans on New Year’s Eve, the FBI said.
An Islamic State flag hung from a plastic flagpole placed on the truck’s trailer hitch. In videos posted to Facebook early Wednesday morning, Jabbar said he joined the jihadist group before the summer.
Jabbar, a 42-year-old U.S. Army veteran and IT professional from Texas has also been linked to a short-term rental home a short distance from where the terror attack occurred. More explosive device materials were found there, and a small fire was reported that investigators say was a failed attempt to destroy evidence.
The FBI has gained entrance to the mobile home where Jabbar lived in Houston and found “precursor chemicals” used to make explosives, WVUE-TV Fox 8 reported Friday morning.
Biden directed federal security agencies Thursday to continue assisting all levels of law enforcement investigating the terrorist attack in New Orleans. The president met with Vice President Kamala Harris, Attorney General Merrick Garland, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, Department of Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, and several other high-ranking officials to discuss the investigation into the attack, according to the White House.
Reporters were first able to ask Biden about the incident Wednesday, when he said, “The spirit of New Orleans will never, never, never be defeated.”
The president’s most recent trip to New Orleans was for an event at Tulane University focused on cancer research. The Bidens’ daughter, Ashley, graduated from Tulane.
This story first appeared in the Louisiana Illuminator, a member with the Phoenix in the nonprofit States Newsroom.
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