Georgia State University Vice President A. Jabbar: “The Louisiana National Guard is on duty” after the Dec. 5 Alabama Atmospheric Attack
According to a review of the Texas Secretary of State Records,Jabbar had started several real estate businesses in Texas. They went out of business in recent years.
In a now-removed YouTube video for one of the businesses posted four years ago, Jabbar says he was born and raised in Beaumont, Texas, and spent all his life in the state except for his time in the military.
He said his ten years in the military is “where I learned the meaning of great service and what it means to be responsive and take everything seriously, dotting i’s and crossing t’s, to make sure that things go off without a hitch.”
A Georgia State University spokesperson confirmed Jabbar attended the school from 2015 to 2017, and graduated with a business administration bachelor’s degree in computer information systems.
In response to the attack, Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry has declared a state of emergency in New Orleans and called up 100 members of a military police unit of the Louisiana National Guard to assist with security.
The order, which frees up additional state and federal resources to support security, comes ahead of the city’s plans to host an influx of visitors for several high-profile events. The Sugar Bowl is expected to go on as scheduled on Thursday afternoon. New Orleans will be ready for both the Super Bowl and the start of Mardi Gras.
The Dallas-Fort Worth FBI Investigating the Dec. 30 Decay of a Houston, Tx, Superconductor and Former Army Sergeant Jabbar
Police on Wednesday were at Jabbar’s home in northwest Houston, and said it was an active investigation scene. The house is cut off from the street by a large iron gate, with ducks and sheep seen roaming the property, according to Houston Public Media’s Rob Salinas. The Texas Newsroom reported that a neighbor, who didn’t know Jabbar by name, described the suspect as quiet and their interactions as normal.
Jabbar was a U.S. citizen and was honorably discharged from the Army, the FBI said. In addition to being a Human Resource Specialist and Information Technology Specialist for the Army, he served as an IT Specialist in the Army Reserve from January 2015 to July 2020. He served in Afghanistan for about a year. He became a Staff Sergeant after leaving the service.
Authorities are looking into the possibility that he had ties to terrorist organizations. The Islamic State terrorist group did not make a claim regarding the attack.
Jabbar rented the white Ford truck on Dec. 30 and was seen driving it in Houston before heading to New Orleans, said Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, the acting governor while Gov. Greg Abbott is out of state.
“We do not assess at this point that anyone else is involved in this attack,” Christopher Raia, FBI deputy assistant director with the agency’s counterterrorism division, told reporters during a press conference.
Law enforcement officials are also looking into whether the incident is connected to a Tesla Cybertruck that exploded early Wednesday outside of President-elect Donald Trump’s Las Vegas hotel, President Biden said. One person died and seven others were injured in the explosion.
A truck plowed into a crowd on New Orleans’ famed Bourbon Street in the early hours of New Year’s Day, leaving at least 15 people dead and dozens more hospitalized with injuries.
The driver of the pickup truck that rammed into a crowd in New Orleans on New Year’s Day, killing at least 14 people and injuring dozens, acted alone, according to the FBI.
The FBI has yet to say a reason why the Islamic State flag and improvised bombs were found inside a pickup truck. The FBI said its likely the driver did not act alone, and it’s searching for information that could lead to additional suspects who may have aided in the attack.
Weapons and what appeared to be an improvised explosive device was found inside the truck, according to the federal agency. There were other IEDs in the French Quarter. Authorities said they swept the French Quarter, parts of the Central Business District and the Caesars Superdome — where the now-delayed Sugar Bowl will be held — looking for additional improvised explosive devices.
Bourbon Street, a 13 block stretch in the French Quarter, is home to bars, restaurants and music venues which attract a crowd during the night. The number of tourists in New Orleans increased this week as they made their way for New Year’s Eve and the Sugar Bowl.
The suspect sped through the intersection of Canal and Bourbon Street and onto the sidewalk before reversing and heading back onto Bourbon, according to police.
Police have said that around 3:15 a.m. on Wednesday, Jabbar veered around a police vehicle blocking the intersection of Canal and Bourbon streets, speeding onto the sidewalk before steering back onto Bourbon. He was driving down Bourbon Street for more than two blocks before he crashed on the other side of Iberville Street. Jabbar then exited the pickup and fired at police officers, injuring two. Police said in a news briefing that the injured officers are in stable condition.
The suspect tried to run over as many people as he could by driving at a very fast pace on Bourbon Street, New Orleans police chief Anne Kirkpatrick said at the news conference. She said that it was intentional.
Vehicles are usually blocked off from entry to Bourbon Street by metal bollards. The bollards were brought down for maintenance at the time of the attack, with their repair close to completion. Vehicles that were trying to enter the French Quarter were being roadblocked by the police car that the suspect bypassed.
Investigation of the New Orleans Truck Attack, which killed a Houston, Louisiana, teen who used a computer to commit a terrorist attack
Raia said investigators are combing through five electronic devices — three cellphones and two laptops — and there is “nothing to indicate through call records, through anything on those devices, through interviews, through anything in our systems that he was aided in this attack by anyone.”
Raia says that the driver rented a white F-150 in Houston on Monday and headed to New Orleans on Tuesday. Jabbar posted “several videos” to social media declaring his support for ISIS and explained that while he planned to hurt his family and friends he was concerned the news headlines would not focus on the “war between the believers and the disbelievers,” Raia said. He joined the terrorist group before the summer of 2024.
Bourbon Street, which has been closed as authorities investigate, has been cleaned overnight and was reopened to pedestrians on Thursday. Each of the 14 yellow roses that were put on the sidewalk near Canal Street was intended to be a memorial to the victims of the speeding rampage.
When asked about the security measures in the city, Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry said officials “reinforced the area and deployed some additional types of assets.”
“I don’t like to give specifics because I don’t like to tell the enemy what we got,” he said. “I can tell you that we’re in better shape than before,” he said. He also said there is “an unprecedented amount of law enforcement resources that are being utilized” to finalize the investigation.
On the Link between Las Vegas Cybertruck Explosions and New Orleans Attacks: A Pedestrian Attempt to Investigate a Newly-Breaking Black Hole
Raia said there is currently no definitive link between the Cybertruck explosion in Las Vegas and the attack in New Orleans.
