A driver who killed 10 and wounded 30 when he plowed his vehicle into New Year’s revelers in New Orleans has been identified.
Shamsud Din Jabbar was named by the FBI as 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 killed in a firefight with police following the sickening attack which left two officers wounded.
Din Jabbar has been formally identified as the driver behind the horror slaughter early on New Year’s Day.
Eyewitnesses said Din Jabbar got out of the truck wearing full body armor and wielding an assault rifle.
He is a 42-year-old American citizen born and raised in Texas who formerly served in the US Army.
The first victim in Wednesday morning’s horrifying attack has been identified as an 18-year-old girl.
Nikyra Cheyenne Dedeaux from Gulfport, Mississippi had traveled to New Orleans with her cousin and a friend to celebrate the New Year.
Her grieving mother, Melissa Dedeaux, confirmed the tragic news to NOLA.
“I just want to see my baby,” she said.
“She was the sweetest person. She would give you anything, anything.”
At least one improvised explosive device had been found in the area, according to the FBI.
Multiple devices were found in an ice chest in the pickup truck, a law enforcement source told CNN.
At least two IEDs found in the French Quarter have been rendered safe, while more in the area are being investigated.
Police say the attack was deliberate and was not a DUI, and the FBI is treating it as an act of terrorism.
A State of Emergency has been declared in Louisiana following the deadly terror attack, with a major college football game scheduled to go ahead on Wednesday has been postponed.
Horrific pictures from the scene show the truck with its hood buckled from the force of the impact.
A black ISIS flag was on the back of the truck when the attack happened, law enforcement sources confirmed at a press conference on Wednesday afternoon.
Investigators are working to determine whether Din Jabbar had a connection to ISIS and whether he was working alone, law enforcement sources told ABC News.
The FBI does not believe Din Jabbar was “solely responsible” for the attack and has asked for the public’s help in tracking down associates, a regional chief said at the same press conference.
Fox News has reported that some four or five others are suspected of having helped him carry out the deadly attack.
Louisiana’s Governor Jeff Landry has ordered the head of the state’s National Guard to mobilize a military police force to assist the New Orleans Police Department and the FBI with the investigation.
Officials are still working on information about Din Jabbar’s background and potential travel history, senior law enforcement sources told NBC News.
He rented the truck in Texas through an app that allows vehicle owners to lend them to strangers for money.
Grim unverified footage shared on X shows motionless bodies scattered on the floor, some of them bloodied, while loud bangs that are possible gunshots are heard.
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.
