New Orleans attacker Shamsud-Din Jabbar wore smart glasses to film the city’s French Quarter while cycling, in the weeks before his deadly atrocity, the FBI has said.

Jabbar made two trips to the southern city in October and November last year, according to the bureau.

The US citizen, from Houston, Texas, killed 14 people, including Briton Edward Pettifer, when he rammed his rental white pick-up truck into a crowd celebrating New Year in Bourbon Street in the historic French Quarter early on 1 January.

The 42-year-old former US army soldier was then killed in a shootout with police at the scene of the deadly crash.

In a news conference on Sunday, the fourteenth victim was confirmed by Louisiana governor Jeff Landry as LaTasha Polk. He said she worked as a nursing assistant and was the mother of a 14-year-old.

It comes after a vigil was held on Saturday evening for those who died, with relatives among those who gathered on Bourbon Street.

The FBI said Jabbar’s first trip, when he stayed at a rental home, started on 30 October, and lasted at least two days, and he was also in New Orleans on 10 November.

It said he made the cycling video on his first visit using the hands-free glasses, which were developed by US tech giant Meta and are capable of recording or livestreaming. They are designed to look like normal glasses and come in a range of styles.

Jabbar was wearing a pair of Meta smart glasses while he carried out the 1 January attack, but he did not activate them to livestream his actions that day.

Around 30 other people were injured in the incident. Thirteen remain in hospital, with eight people in intensive care.

What happened in the hours before the attack?

The FBI said Jabbar was seen on 31 December at one of several gun shops he visited in Texas leading up to the ramming attack. He then stopped at a business in Texas where he bought one of the ice boxes he used to hide an improvised explosive device (IED).

He entered Louisiana around 2.30pm local time (8.30pm UK time) on 31 December – hours before the attack – and his rented vehicle was later seen in the city of Gonzales, Louisiana, about 9pm that evening.

By 10pm, home camera footage showed Jabbar unloading the white pick-up truck in New Orleans outside his rental home in Mandeville Street.

The FBI said that just under three hours later, at 12.41am on 1 January, Jabbar parked the truck and walked to the junction of Royal and Governor Nichols Street.

It said Jabbar placed one IED in a cooler box at the junction of Bourbon Street and St Peter Street at 1.53am on New Year’s Day.

A person on Bourbon Street, not believed to be involved in the attack, dragged the cooler about a block where authorities found it after the attack.

A second IED was placed by Jabbar in a “bucket-type cooler” at 2.20am at the junction of Bourbon Street and Toulouse Street.

At 3.15am, Jabbar carried out his deadly attack, where he “used the truck as a lethal weapon”, said the FBI.

Two IEDs left in coolers several blocks apart were made safe.

Shortly after 5am, a fire was reported at the Mandeville Street rental home in New Orleans, where emergency services found explosive devices.

The FBI believes Jabbar acted alone.

“We have not seen any indications of an accomplice in the United States, but we are still looking into potential associates in the US and outside of our borders,” Deputy Assistant Director Christopher Raia said at the news conference.

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How the atrocity unfolded

Jabbar also travelled to Cairo, Egypt, between 22 June and 3 July 2023, and a few days later on 10 July he flew to Ontario, Canada, before returning to the US on 13 July.

But it was not yet clear whether those trips were connected to the truck attack.

“Our agents are getting answers to where he went, who he went with and how those trips may or may not tie into his actions here,” said Lyonel Myrthil, FBI special agent in charge of the New Orleans Field Office.

Jabbar proclaimed his support for the Islamic State militant group in online videos posted hours before he struck.

‘Very rare explosive compound’

He used a very rare explosive compound which was found in the two functional IEDs he placed in New Orleans and authorities are investigating how he knew how to make this homemade explosive, two officials close to the investigation told Sky’s partner network NBC News.

The explosive has never been used in a US terror attack or incident nor has it been used in any European terror attack, said the officials.

A major winter storm has hit America, producing heavy snow and significant ice which is expected to last days.

Road conditions have become increasingly dangerous in the central US since Saturday, with snow in the most heavily affected regions – Kansas and northern Missouri – predicted to reach as high as 35.6cm.

Some 60 million people are under weather alerts across 30 states, with the National Weather Service warning that severe thunderstorms, with the possibility of tornadoes and hail, are also a possibility in some regions over the next few days.

Kansas, Arkansas, Kentucky and Virginia have declared states of emergency as the storm, driven by a polar vortex, moves east.

A polar vortex is an area of low pressure and cold air that swirls like a wheel around each of Earth’s two polar regions. Sometimes the Arctic polar vortex wobbles and a lobe surges south, blanketing parts of North America with bitter temperatures.

It has already led to accidents across the nation, with a fire truck, several tractor-trailers and passenger vehicles overturned west of Salina, Kansas, on Saturday, and some trucks spiralled into ditches, state highway patrol trooper Ben Gardner said.

“We are in it now,” he said in a video on social media which showed him at the scene of an accident.

To demonstrate the danger on the roads, the trooper filmed himself running onto the seemingly clear road and sliding across it for several seconds due to what appeared to be black ice.

“That’s what we’re dealing with out here, and it’s not getting better, it’s getting worse, so get off the roads,” he warned.

Freezing rain in Wichita, Kansas, led to multiple crashes on Saturday morning, authorities said, as they urged drivers to stay home if possible and watch out for emergency vehicles.

Governors in neighbouring Missouri and nearby Arkansas declared states of emergency, while snowy conditions threatened to make driving dangerous to impossible, forecasters warned.

“Please stay off the roads. Crews are seeing too many vehicles out and sliding off,” Missouri’s transportation department said on the social platform X.

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What is freezing rain and what makes it so dangerous?

Major airlines, including American, Delta, Southwest, and United, are waiving change fees ahead of likely flight disruptions in heavily affected regions.

Temperatures were well below zero in many areas on Saturday, such as -7C to -10C in Chicago, -18C in Minneapolis, and -25C in International Falls, Minnesota, on the Canadian border.

New Orleans has held a vigil to mourn the lives of the 14 people killed when a truck was driven into revellers celebrating the new year.

Some of the relatives of those killed were among those who gathered on Saturday night on Bourbon Street, the famous French Quarter thoroughfare where the attack took place,

The vigil began near a makeshift memorial with pictures of the victims, candles, teddy bears and flowers carefully laid out on the street.

The families held each and cried – but when a brass band began playing, the sorrow transformed into celebration as the crowd danced and followed the music.

The New Orleans coroner’s office has identified 13 of the 14 victims, including British citizen Edward Pettifer.

The 31-year-old, from west London, was the stepson of Tiggy Legge-Bourke, who was Prince William and Prince Harry’s nanny between 1993 and 1999.

William yesterday paid tribute to Mr Pettifer, saying he was “shocked and saddened” by his “tragic” death.

Cathy Tenedorio, whose 25-year-old son Matthew died in the New Year’s Day attack, said she felt moved by the condolences and kindness at the vigil.

“This is the most overwhelming response of love, an outpouring of love,” she said. “I’m floating through it all.”

Autrele Felix, whose friend Nicole Perez was killed, said: “It means a lot, to see that our city comes together when there’s a real tragedy. We all become one.”

Read more:
Suspect’s half-brother speaks out
How the atrocity unfolded

Others said getting into the party spirit was the best way to honour the victims.

“Because that’s what they were down here to do, they were having a good time,” said Kari Mitten, a life-long New Orleans resident.

The cause of death of all 14 victims has been listed as “blunt force injuries” by the coroner’s office.

Around 30 other people were injured in the attack, which saw former US army solider Shamsud-Din Jabbar drive a rented truck into crowds of people in the early hours of New Year’s Day.

Jabbar proclaimed his support for the Islamic State in videos posted online hours before the incident. He was shot dead in a firefight with police at the scene.

Of those injured, 13 remain in hospital and eight are in intensive care, a spokesperson for the University Medical Center New Orleans said.