Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs
Appearances
The Daily
Terror in New Orleans
Normally in this area, there are these metal barricades or bollards. In this case, there's a lot of questions about whether those were missing because the city has undertaken this renovation process of the bollards.
The Daily
Terror in New Orleans
What we know is that what was blocking the street was a police car that the truck was able to speed around by seemingly going up onto the sidewalk where there was a big group of people and then started accelerating down Bourbon Street extremely fast.
The Daily
Terror in New Orleans
There's people pulling each other out of the way, jumping out of the way at the last minute, people looking at their phones and then suddenly looking up at this loud noise and having maybe half a second to save their lives.
The Daily
Terror in New Orleans
And after barreling through crowds of people, this truck eventually comes to a stop, and a police officer approaches the driver's side, and there's seemingly an exchange of gunfire in which we know that the attacker was killed.
The Daily
Terror in New Orleans
And at that point, it's just mayhem on the street with people trying to find loved ones, checking on each other. Bodies all over, people described going into bars, trying to hide, just trying to figure out what's happened and see if their friends have made it with them to safety.
The Daily
Terror in New Orleans
And it's a devastating scene of carnage on Bourbon Street, where just moments before it had been, you know, the opposite. It had been revelry and people going into the new year.
The Daily
Terror in New Orleans
And in the end, 14 people were killed in this attack and 35 more people were wounded.
The Daily
Terror in New Orleans
By the morning, we learned that this was quite clearly an intentional attack. We learned that the truck had a... ISIS flag on the back of it. We learn that the attacker had driven from Texas to New Orleans to carry out this mayhem. And we learn his name, Shamsuddin Bahar Jabbar, a 42-year-old U.S.
The Daily
Terror in New Orleans
Army veteran from Texas who had, just in the hours before the attack, posted videos on his Facebook in which he apparently pledged allegiance to the Islamic State. But the question at that point is, Was he working with someone else? Were there other people involved? And the police had found these coolers that contained explosive devices.
The Daily
Terror in New Orleans
One was right on the corner of Bourbon Street, and one was two blocks away. And when they looked at surveillance video, they saw a bunch of people standing around them, people checking them out, looking at them, and they wondered if any of those people might have been involved in this attack. So that sets off this...
The Daily
Terror in New Orleans
hunt essentially for people that they thought might have planted explosive devices in the area that thankfully did not go off. And there's a lot of confusion about whether more people are out there who were part of this attack.
The Daily
Terror in New Orleans
At the same time, also on New Year's Day, you have these wild videos of a Tesla Cybertruck in Las Vegas across the country bursting into flames right outside of a Trump-branded hotel.
The Daily
Terror in New Orleans
And so I think for a lot of people, there was this question of whether there was a coordinated attack across the country and fears of what might happen next.
The Daily
Terror in New Orleans
I think that's right, exactly. And part of the reason I think people thought these attacks might be connected in New Orleans and Las Vegas is because the drivers of both cars had apparently rented them through this fairly obscure car rental company called Turo, where... people rent out their personal vehicles to others.
The Daily
Terror in New Orleans
And so, you know, I think people were coming up with all kinds of theories about whether this was an attack that had been planned, that people had coordinated in choosing a certain rental service or doing this or that, and that more attacks could be coming.
The Daily
Terror in New Orleans
The FBI and other officials come out and say definitively that they are quite confident that the attacker in New Orleans was acting alone, that he apparently did not have any help. Those reports turned out to be misinformation or not actual devices.
The Daily
Terror in New Orleans
What we end up finding out is that the people who were standing around those coolers with the explosive devices were just bystanders, just people taking a look at something on the street and that they apparently had no involvement in placing them there or knowing what was inside. They said that they do have the attacker on video planting those coolers with the explosive devices.
The Daily
Terror in New Orleans
The FBI said that they've recovered three phones tied to the attacker, that they're also going through two computers that they recovered. They are executing search warrants. They are combing through a bunch of tips and surveillance video. And they also asked anyone who had interacted with him in the last few days to come forward. And now the question has turned to how this man who was a U.S.
The Daily
Terror in New Orleans
Army veteran and had a stable job had ended up becoming radicalized and pledging allegiance to ISIS and wanting to carry out as much destruction as possible in the heart of New Orleans.
The Daily
Terror in New Orleans
yeah this is a new year's eve in new orleans it's a place where thousands of people come every year to celebrate the new year to drink all night to be with their friends to stay out late to roam around the streets and go from bar to bar and that's exactly what people were doing this new year's eve like every year and at the heart of the french quarter is bourbon street
The Daily
Terror in New Orleans
And it is one of the most famous streets in New Orleans, if not the country. And even at 3 a.m., especially on New Year's Day, New Year's Eve, there are people on the sidewalks under these neon signs getting an Uber or figuring out their next move. And then around 3.15, all of that changes. It was at that time that a white pickup truck was driving to this area.