The FBI says the New Orleans attacker surveyed the area using Meta smart glasses

The man who plowed his truck into a crowd on New Year’s Day recorded footage of the area during a bike ride through New Orleans’ French Quarter in October using the same Meta smart glasses he wore when he carried out his attack months later, federal authorities said Sunday .

The images were among dozens of videos released by federal authorities showing planning for the New Year’s Eve attack, including the planting of improvised explosive devices by the suspects on Bourbon Street.

Authorities reiterated that Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a 42-year-old army veteran, acted alone in the massacre that killed at least 14 people who had gathered in a popular tourist center to celebrate the new year. Authorities said they have found no evidence of a co-conspirator in the United States, although they are continuing to look into the matter, including any potential overseas connections.

Meanwhile, New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell said Sunday that the city is bringing in an expert to determine whether the bollards the city uses to protect pedestrians are adequate for high-profile events, including the Super Bowl and Mardi Gras. Officials warned Sunday of an increased potential for threats, given a series of major public events in the coming months.

President Joe Biden, who plans to visit New Orleans on Monday, said authorities had determined “beyond a reasonable doubt” that Jabbar carried out the attack alone.

“All the talk of collusion with other people, there’s no evidence of that,” Biden said Sunday afternoon after signing the bill at the White House. “He’s the one who put both coolers in there six hours earlier. He had a detonator in his car that was supposed to blow them up when he collided.”

In its briefing, the FBI revealed additional details about the planning of the attack on the truck.

Lionel Myrtle, the FBI’s special agent in charge of New Orleans, said Jabbar, who lived in the Houston area, visited New Orleans in October and November, including an October trip to Bourbon Street, where he recorded footage of the area with an AI device. glasses. Before that, he also visited Cairo in the summer of 2023 before flying to Ontario, Canada, before returning to the United States, authorities said.

“Our agents are getting answers about where he went, who he met with and how those trips may or may not be related to his actions here in our city of New Orleans,” Myrtle said.

Canadian law enforcement officials have contacted U.S. authorities as part of the case, said Royal Canadian Mounted Police spokeswoman Christine Kelly, who declined to provide further details because of the ongoing investigation.

The smart glasses worn by Jabbar, which allow for hands-free video recording, would likely allow him to capture detailed footage of the terrain without attracting attention. They were found on him after he was killed by the authorities.

“We believe he wore them throughout the evening of the attack,” Myrtle said. “We don’t have any indication that he was actually recording, but he was wearing those glasses.”

Meta did not immediately comment on the issue.

Jabbar eventually returned to Louisiana on Tuesday, Myrtle said, as footage showed him unloading a pickup truck outside a rented house on Mandeville Street in New Orleans.

Joshua Jackson, special agent in charge of the ATF’s New Orleans field office, said at a briefing Sunday that authorities had seized the firearms and what he called “privately made silencers,” though he cautioned that tests are still ongoing to determine whether the devices muffle the sound of the shot. by appointment The rented house, which contained at least one silencer and “explosive material,” authorities said, would go up in flames hours before the attack, a fire believed to have been set by Jabbar.

Jabbar parked his truck, a rented Ford F-150, near the scene of the attack before planting improvised explosive devices in refrigerators around Bourbon Street between about 1:50 a.m. and 2:20 a.m., authorities said.

They said he drove his truck into a crowd of revelers at 3:15 a.m., bringing it to a halt when it hit construction equipment. He started shooting before he was killed by the authorities.

The explosive device was defused before it could be detonated. Jackson said Jabbar used an explosive chemically similar to the explosive found in C-4, but Jabbar tried to set off the explosives with an electric match instead of the required detonator.

“What was different was he didn’t use the right or the right device to run it,” Jackson said. “And that just shows his inexperience and lack of understanding of how this stuff can be launched.”