New Orleans attack: Suspect expressed ‘desire to kill’ as 15 confirmed dead in New Year attack
At least 15 people were killed after a US army veteran who had expressed a “desire to kill” drove a pick-up truck into crowds of people celebrating New Year in New Orleans before he was fatally shot dead by police.
The FBI said it is investigating the attack in the early hours of Wednesday on the famous Bourbon Street as a terrorist act and does not believe the driver acted alone.
An ISIS flag was attached to the vehicle as it was driven at speed down the busy road, the FBI said. President Joe Biden has said the suspect had posted a video to social media hours before the attack in which he said he was inspired by the Islamic State group.
New Orleans latest: Follow live updates
An IS flag that was attached to the pick-up truck that was driven down Bourbon Street
Multiple improvised explosive devices – including two pipe bombs hidden inside coolers and wired for remote detonation – were found in the vehicle and elsewhere in the city’s French Quarter.
The suspect, identified by the FBI as Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, a US citizen from Texas, had driven around safety measures in place to protect pedestrians.
The attack happened in the city’s French Quarter
He was fatally shot after getting out of the rented pick-up truck and opening fire on responding police officers, New Orleans Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said.
Two officers were also injured in the gun battle and more than 30 people were injured in the attack.
Analysis: IS flag link is stark reminder dangerous extremist Islamist ideology never went away
‘Desire to kill’
Addressing the nation on Wednesday night, Mr Biden said called the attack a “despicable” and “heinous act”.
He added: “There is no justification for violence of any kind, and we will not tolerate any attack on any of our nation’s communities.”
Addressing the victims and the people of New Orleans, he added: “Our nation grieves with you as you mourn and as you heal.”
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New Orleans suspect ‘says hello’ on old promo vid
Mr Biden said Jabbar had posted a video on social media indicating he had been influenced by Islamic State and that he had expressed a “desire to kill.”
The Associated Press news agency, citing an intelligence bulletin, said the suspect was wearing a ballistic vest and helmet. The flag of the IS group was also found on the vehicle’s trailer hitch, the FBI said.
A handgun and an AR-style rifle were also recovered.
FBI agents at the scene of the attack in New Orleans. Pic: Reuters
A damaged door on Bourbon Street after a suspicious package was detonated. Pic: AP
Law enforcement also closed off a road leading to a property in Houston, Texas, which is thought to be associated with the suspect.
Images showed a bomb disposal robot and SWAT officers at the scene.
Jabbar served in human resources and IT roles in the US army between 2007 and 2015.
He was deployed to Afghanistan between 2009 and 2010, before moving to the reserves from 2015 to 2020.
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What we know about the New Orleans attack
Possible link to Tesla Cybertruck explosion
US authorities are also investigating whether the attack has any connection to a Tesla Cybertruck which exploded outside a Trump hotel in Las Vegas.
Sky News’ US partner network NBC News reported that authorities are examining a “possible military connection” between the two suspects, and are already looking into the fact both men used the Turo car app to rent the vehicles used in both incidents.
Sources familiar with the investigation told NBC News the driver of the Cybertruck had previous military experience – although they stressed that the investigation is still unfolding.
Read more:
First victims named
What more do we know about suspect?
New Year’s carnage haunts New Orleans – but ‘Big Easy’ has suffered before
A robot is deployed at a location associated with the attacker in Houston, Texas. Pic: AP
Some of the victims of the New Orleans attack have been identified.
Among them were 18-year-old aspiring nurse Ni’Kyra Cheyenne Dedeaux and Princeton graduate Tiger Bech, 27.
Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry has urged people to avoid the area, which remains an active crime scene with a large part of Bourbon Street cordoned off.
The FBI has repeatedly warned about a heightened terrorism threat due to the Israel-Hamas war.
The man accused of killing right-wing influencer Charlie Kirk has appeared in person at court for the first time.
Tyler Robinson, 22, from Utah, is charged with aggravated murder in relation to the shooting of Kirk on the Utah Valley University campus in Orem.
Charlie Kirk pictured in December 2024. Pic: Reuters
Video of the incident showed Kirk, 31, and a staunch ally of Donald Trump, reaching up with his right hand after a gunshot was heard as blood came out from the left side of his neck. He died shortly after.
Prosecutors plan to seek the death penalty.
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How the Charlie Kirk shooting unfolded
On Wednesday’s appearance at Fourth District Court in Provo, Utah, Robinson arrived in court with restraints on his wrists and ankles and wearing a dress shirt, tie and slacks.
Read more: What we can learn about suspect from charging document
According to the Associated Press, he smiled at family members sitting in the front row of the courtroom, where his mother teared up and wiped her eyes with a tissue.
He made previous court appearances via video or audio feed from jail.
Pic: AP
The shooting happened during Kirk’s “prove me wrong” series, which saw the father of two visit campuses and debate contentious subjects; in this case, he was discussing mass shootings.
Prosecutors say the bullet which struck Kirk’s neck “passed closely to several other individuals”, including the person questioning him as part of the event.
President Trump comforts Charlie Kirk’s widow Erika at his memorial service in Arizona in September. Pic: Reuters
A charging document about Robinson from September includes incriminating texts sent between the alleged shooter and his roommate after Kirk’s death.
Read more from Sky News:
Analysis: The real reason for Trump’s Venezuela exploits
FBI release Luigi Mangione ‘to-do list’ before alleged assassination
Judge Tony Graf also heard arguments on Wednesday about whether cameras and media should be allowed in the courtroom, with Robinson’s lawyers and the Utah County Sheriff’s Office asking for them to be banned.
Mr Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk, has called for full transparency and said “we deserve to have cameras in there”.
The judge has already made allowances to protect Robinson’s presumption of innocence before a trial, agreeing that the case has drawn “extraordinary” public attention
US
US won’t ‘stand by and watch sanctioned vessels’, warns White House after tanker seized off Venezuela
The US will not “stand by and watch sanctioned vessels sail the seas”, the White House has warned, after American forces seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela.
Spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told reporters she would not speak about future ship seizures, but said the US would continue to follow Donald Trump‘s sanction policies.
“We’re not going to stand by and watch sanctioned vessels sail the seas with black market oil, the proceeds of which will fuel narcoterrorism of rogue and illegitimate regimes around the world,” she said.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt briefing the media. Pic: Reuters
The US is gearing up to intercept more ships, six sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.
One source said several more sanctioned tankers had been identified by the US for potential seizure.
Two of the people said the US Justice Department and Homeland Security had been planning the seizures for months.
American forces were monitoring vessels in Venezuelan ports and waiting for them to sail into international waters before taking action, one source added.
It comes after a crude oil tanker, named Skipper, on Wednesday was stormed by US forces executing a seizure warrant.
The ship left Venezuela’s main oil port of Jose between 4 and 5 December after loading about 1.1 million barrels of oil, according to satellite information analysed by TankerTrackers.com and internal shipping data from Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA.
A still from a video of US forces seizing a Venezuelan oil tanker, posted by Pam Bondi. Pic: X/@AGPamBondi
The real reason for Donald Trump’s Venezuela exploits
Donald Trump wants you to know that there is one leading reason why he is bearing down militarily on Venezuela: drugs.
It is, he has said repeatedly, that country’s part in the production and smuggling of illegal narcotics into America that lies behind the ratcheting up of forces in the Caribbean in recent weeks. But what if there’s something else going on here too? What if this is really all about oil?
In one respect this is clearly preposterous. After all, the United States is, by a country mile, the world’s biggest oil producer. Venezuela is a comparative minnow these days, the 21st biggest producer in the world, its output having been depressed under the Chavez and then Maduro regimes. Why should America care about Venezuelan oil?
For the answer, one needs to spend a moment – strange as this will sound – contemplating the chemistry of oil…
US attorney general Pam Bondi said on X, formerly Twitter, that the ship was “used to transport sanctioned oil from Venezuela and Iran”.
“For multiple years, the oil tanker has been sanctioned by the United States due to its involvement in an illicit oil shipping network supporting foreign terrorist organisations,” she added.
Ms Leavitt said that “the United States does intend to get the oil” that was onboard the vessel.
The government in Caracas, led by President Nicolas Maduro, branded the ship’s seizure a “blatant theft” and an “act of international piracy”.
Read more:
Analysis: Is this what the beginning of a war looks like?
US-Venezuela crisis explained
Why tanker seized by US was ‘spoofing’ its location
The US has been ramping up the pressure on Mr Maduro and is reportedly considering trying to oust him. It has piled on sanctions, carried out a military build-up in the southern Caribbean, and launched attacks on suspected drug vessels from Venezuela.
Now America has issued new sanctions targeting Franqui Flores, Efrain Antonio Campo Flores, and Carlos Erik Malpica Flores – three nephews of Mr Maduro’s wife, Cilia Flores – as well as on six crude oil tankers and six shipping companies linked to them.
Skipper. Credit: TankerTrackers
By seizing oil tankers, the US is threatening Mr Maduro’s government’s main revenue source – oil exports.
The sources said the US was focusing on what’s been called the shadow fleet – tankers transporting sanctioned oil to China, the biggest buyer of crude from Venezuela and Iran.
They said one shipper had already temporarily suspended three voyages transporting six million barrels of Venezuelan crude oil.
“The cargoes were just loaded and were about to start sailing to Asia,” a source said.
“Now the voyages are cancelled and tankers are waiting off the Venezuelan coast as it’s safer to do that.”
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