The suspect in the New Orleans attack that killed 15 people on New Year’s Day did not act alone, US investigators believe.
Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a 42-year-old US citizen, is believed to have driven a pick-up truck into a crowd on a busy New Orleans street, before exiting the vehicle and firing a weapon. He was shot dead by police at the scene.
The FBI says an Islamic State (IS) group flag was found inside the vehicle he was driving, while two improvised explosive devices were found nearby.
FBI assistant special agent Alethea Duncan said the agency did not believe Jabbar was “solely responsible” and were investigating the incident as an “act of terrorism”.
President Joe Biden said investigators were looking into whether the incident was linked to the explosion of a Tesla Cybertruck outside Trump Hotel in Las Vegas, but “thus far, there is nothing to report”.
The FBI also said it was investigating whether the Las Vegas incident might be an act of terrorism, but has not confirmed the identity of the driver. Authorities said that they had so far found no evidence that this incident was related to IS.
Sheriff Kevin McMahill told a news conference on Wednesday that police were considering whether it may be related to President-elect Donald Trump, who owns the hotel, or Elon Musk, who owns Tesla. In the wake of the attack in New Orleans, Coroner Dr Dwight McKenna confirmed by the evening that the death toll had risen to 15.
He said it would take several days to perform all of the post-mortem examinations, after which the identities of the victims would be formally released. (BBC)
