Authorities are investigating a possible military connection between the New Orleans car crash suspect and the man who died after his Tesla Cybertruck exploded outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas on New Year’s Day. Two law enforcement officials familiar with the incident told NBC News.
The possible connection was made in one thread being drawn by officials on Thursday, a day after a man drove a pickup truck displaying an ISIS flag onto New Orleans’ busy Bourbon Street in the early hours of the new year. It wasn’t too much. Officials were also searching a scene in Texas. Fifteen people were killed and at least 30 injured that day.
Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill said the FBI is investigating the attack as an act of terrorism, and authorities believe multiple people were involved.
Hours later, the Las Vegas explosion prompted increased security around Trump Tower in New York and Chicago. Tesla CEO Elon Musk is a top advisor to President-elect Donald Trump, who is scheduled to take office later this month.
President Joe Biden said Wednesday that “law enforcement and intelligence communities” were investigating “whether there is any connection” between the incidents.
The New Orleans suspect, Shamsuddin Jabbar, 42, who was killed in the ensuing shootout with police, was an American military veteran living in Texas. He worked in the military’s human resources and information technology departments from 2006 to 2020, including a deployment to Afghanistan in 2009.
The suspect in the Las Vegas Trump Tower bombing has not been publicly identified by law enforcement agencies, but he also had previous military experience, two law enforcement officials familiar with the investigation said. They did not go into further details, stressing that the investigation is still ongoing.
Both vehicles were rented from the same Turo company, and authorities are investigating whether they are related. “We are actively working with law enforcement authorities as they investigate both incidents,” Touro said in a statement.
It was supposed to be a night of celebration in New Orleans on the country’s most famous party street, the French Quarter, a popular tourist destination packed with bars and restaurants. But the scene became a horror scene at around 3.15am, with witnesses and social media footage showing a truck speeding down the road before crashing, leaving bloody and dismembered bodies strewn across the road. .
“This man was trying to run over as many people as possible,” Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said at a news conference. “He was totally committed to creating the carnage and the damage it caused.”
As details of the victims continued to emerge and mourners flocked to the scene to lay flowers, questions arose as to how the driver was able to get around a barrier erected to keep pedestrians safe.
Mayor LaToya Cantrell said the bollards have not been installed because they are still under construction. He said the project is nearly complete and is expected to be completed in time for the Super Bowl in New Orleans in February.
Jabbar lives in Texas, and late Wednesday the Harris County Sheriff’s Office received court authorization to conduct a search in Houston that included an FBI SWAT team, negotiators, bomb A group of engineers and anti-terrorism agents were involved.
FBI Houston announced in an update late Wednesday that no arrests had been made.
Louisiana Attorney General Murrill told NBC News that investigators suspect the explosives associated with the New Orleans attacks may have been manufactured at an Airbnb in the city rented by those involved. spoke. The FBI said a possible improvised explosive device was found in the truck and other possible IEDs were also found in the French Quarter.
Meanwhile, the Sugar Bowl college football game between Georgia and Notre Dame is scheduled to be held Thursday at the Superdome in New Orleans after being rescheduled from Wednesday night.
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