"He [Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabber] was 100 percent inspired by ISIS."
"We're digging through more social media, more interviews ... to ascertain more about that."
"No definitive link [ has been found linking the New Orleans attack and the Tesla Cybertruck explosion outside a Trump hotel in Las Vegas the same day]."
Christopher Raia, deputy assistant director, FBI counterterrorism division
"[In the military], I learned the meaning of great service and what it means to be responsive and take everything seriously."
Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar
"It's not lost on us that it's in front
of the Trump building, and that it's a Tesla vehicle."
"But
we don't have information at this point that definitely tells us, or
suggests, that [the incident] was because of a particular ideology."
Spencer
Evans, FBI agent based in Las Vegas
Photo
show suspects of two separate incidents that occurred on New Year's
Day. To the left, a man identified as Matthew Livelsberger allegedly set
off a Tesla Cybertruck explosion in Las Vegas. To the right, a suspect
identified as Shamsud-Din Jabbar is accused of allegedly hitting
pedestrians with a truck in New Orleans, killing 14 people.Photo by LinkedIn and FBI/AFP via Getty Images
Matthew Livelsberger, 37, of Colorado, a highly decorated American soldier was awarded two Bronze stars, one with a valour device for courage under fire; a combat infantry badge, and an Army Commendation Medal with valour. Livelsberger and Jabbar both spent time at the Fort Bragg massive army base in North Carolina. An official from the base stated no overlap in their assignments ever took place.
New Orleans police and
federal agents investigate a suspected terrorist attack on Bourbon
Street in New Orleans on New Year's Day on Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025.(Chris Granger/The New Orleans Advocate via AP)
The very day that U.S. Texas citizen Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar rammed into a crowd of people at 3:00 a.m. on January 1st on Bourbon Street, killing 14 and injuring 35, in New Orleans, Matthew Livelsberger fatally shot himself in the head just before the Tesla Cybertruck he was seated in burst into flames outside the Las Vegas hotel owned by Donald Trump. Speculation is that he had planned for the explosion to cause a notable level of carnage.
The vehicle as it exploded, however, due to its steel sides, absorbed most of the explosive force. A handgun was found at the dead man's feet, seated in the driver's seat. And it seemed obvious that his death was self-inflicted. The interior of the truck took most of the damage from the blast as it "vented out and up", failing to hit the Trump hotel doors a few feet distant from the truck.
"The level of sophistication is not what we would expect from an individual with this type of military experience", and presumably expertise, stated a special agent in charge for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Inside the charred truck a second firearm, a number of fireworks, a passport, a military ID, credit cards, an iPhone and a smartwatch were found. Both guns had been legally acquired.
Livelsberger had served in the army since 2006, deploying twice to Afghanistan and serving in Ukraine, Tajikistan, Georgia and Congo, with the Green Berets, highly trained special forces working to counter terrorism abroad. The truck explosion, packed with firework, mortars and camp fuel canisters occurred hours after 42-year-old Jabbar rammed his rented truck into a French Quarter crowd in New Orleans.
"[Livelsberger loved Trump] and he was always a very, very patriotic soldier, a patriotic American."
Livelsberger uncle
"[Livelsberger was a] big [supporter of Trump. He voted for Trump in November's election]."
"[The driver was] hell-bent on creating the carnage and the damage that he did."
"It was very intentional behaviour. This man was trying to run over as many people as he could."
New Orleans Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick
"When I got to work this morning, it was kind of pandemonium everywhere."
"There were a couple of bodies on the ground covered up."
"Police were looking for bombs in garbage cans."
Derick Fleming, bellhop, downtown New Orleans hotel
Zion Parsons was with two friends, leaving a restaurant on Bourbon Street, suddenly jerked aware of a 'commotion' and 'banging'. When he turned his head, it was to see a vehicle 'barrelling' onto the pavement and headed straight toward him and his companions. He managed to dodge the oncoming vehicle, but one of his friends was far less fortunate. When he saw his friend's injuries and hear gunfire, he ran away in panic.
Nearby, at a cafe a mere block from the terrorist attack on New Orleans's famous easy street, others celebrated the first day of 2025, awaiting their breakfast, the area crowded with others who had stayed up all night to bring in the new year, or who had meandered over to join celebrants and meld with the crowd of happy people, residents and tourists alike.
FBI
agents work at the site where people were killed by a man driving a
truck in an attack during New Year's celebrations in New Orleans on
January 1. Eduardo Munoz/Reuters
Such attacks, conducted by foreign terrorists infiltrating American soil, or carried through by native Americans with grievances and severe mental conditions, occur everywhere and anywhere. The likelihood of such attacks, or others struck by grievances who seek out venues that reflect their disaffection with life and opportunities withheld, at schools, at shopping centres, at public venues like Bourbon Street's celebration of the New Year, are so frequent albeit always unexpected, they have become normalized.
One such American who had dedicated himself to carnage and death on behalf of the Islamist death cult of deadly jihad killed fourteen people Wednesday morning, ramming a rented pickup truck into a crowd of revellers. Over 30 others were injured in the attack, an attack meant to kill and maim as many as conceivably possible, in the interests of the agenda of the Islamic State, a flag of which was found in the killer's possession.
The wrecked white pickup truck could be seen surrounded by police on Wednesday morning Getty Images
Wednesday's festivities on Bourbon Street will be long remembered as a day of macabre mayhem, one the FBI is investigating as an act of terrorism. They cannot question the man identified as American-born, 42-year old Shamsud-Din Jabbar, who, when police approached the scene, began shooting at the officers, inviting return fire and death as a martyr to be celebrated in Islamist quarters with the expectation that he would rise to Paradise in reward.
Shamsud-Din JabbarFBI
He met his death in a firefight he provoked at 3:15 a.m., the area teeming with New Year's celebrants. The bearded Jabbar dressed in camouflage lay beside the truck sprawled in death face to the road. A handgun and AR-type rifle were recovered by investigators, while an improvised explosive device was discovered along with other potential explosive devices in the vehicle and elsewhere in the French Quarter.
The barriers routinely put in place along Bourbon Street for such celebratory events as New Year's to prevent vehicle attacks were not in place this year. An ongoing major project to remove and replace the bollards left the area vulnerable to the potential for an attack of this magnitude. Plans were that the work was to have been completed for the Super Bowl on February 9. Following the attack coroner's office vans parked at Bourbon and Canal were cordoned off by police tape. Crowds of tourists were left to navigate their luggage through a labyrinth of blockades.
"I yell her name, and I turn my head, and her leg is twisted and contorted above and around her back. And there was just blood."
"As you're walking down the street, you can just look and see bodies, just bodies of people, just bleeding, broken bones."
"I just ran until I couldn't hear nothing no more."
This represents a general opinion site for its author. It also offers a space for the author to record her experiences and perceptions,both personal and public. This is rendered obvious by the content contained in the blog, but the space is here inviting me to write. And so I do.
