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The first victim in Wednesday morning’s horrifying attack has been identified as an 18-year-old girl.
An eyewitness described the surreal moment the pickup truck’s driver “punched the gas and mowed over the barricade and hit a petty cab passenger.
He is reported to be a 42-year-old American citizen born and raised in Texas who formerly served in the US Army.
Eyewitnesses said Din Jabbar got out of the truck wearing full body armor and wielding an assault rifle.
Addressing reporters earlier on Wednesday, Kirkpatrick said the driver deliberately went around barriers and drove intentionally into pedestrians in a clear attempt to maim and kill as many people as possible.
“The FBI is the lead investigative agency, and we are working with our partners to investigate this as an act of terrorism.”
The ramming attack occurred near the intersection of Bourbon Street and Canal Street.
The game between Notre Dame and the University of Georgia was postponed on Wednesday afternoon after Police Commissioner Anne Kirkpatrick had earlier said the game would go ahead as scheduled.
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“She was the sweetest person. She would give you anything, anything.”
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Multiple devices were found in an ice chest in the pickup truck, a law enforcement source told CNN.
Her grieving mother, Melissa Dedeaux, confirmed the tragic news to NOLA.
Liz Murrill, Louisiana’s attorney general, said in a post on X she was praying for the victims of what she called “the brutal intentional slaughter of innocent people celebrating the New Year in New Orleans.”
Officials are still working on information about Din Jabbar’s background and potential travel history, senior law enforcement sources told NBC News.
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Bourbon Street, known worldwide as one of the largest destinations for New Year’s Eve parties, was packed at the time as crowds prepared for the planned Sugar Bowl college football playoff game at the nearby Superdome later in the day.
New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell described the killings as a “terrorist attack” while the city’s police chief said the act was intentional.
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She added, “This man was trying to run over as many people as he could. It was not a DUI situation.”
In 2002, he was arrested in the town of Katy for misdemeanor theft.
Shamsud Din Jabbar is believed to be the driver who rammed a white pickup truck at high speed into a crowd of pedestrians in the city’s packed French Quarter district at 3:15 am along Bourbon Street.
He was hellbent 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.
“This morning, an individual drove a car into a crowd of people on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, killing a number of people and injuring dozens of others,” the FBI said in a statement.
Din Jabbar has been named by multiple news sources as the driver behind the horror slaughter early on New Year’s Day.
“And because of the intentional mindset of this perpetrator who went around our barricades in order to conduct this, he was hellbent on creating the carnage and the damage that he did.”
None of the victims have been named yet, but Israel’s Foreign Ministry says two Israeli nationals are among the wounded.
