The New Orleans terrorist attacker visited the Louisiana city twice in the weeks before the attack and recorded videos of the area using Meta smart glasses, the FBI revealed Sunday.
Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, stayed in a rental home in New Orleans in late October and again in November, just weeks before his attack on Bourbon Street that killed 14 people. He wore smart glasses to record video while bicycling through the French Quarter during that trip, FBI Special Agent in Charge Lyonel Myrthil said Sunday.
“Meta glasses look like normal glasses, but allow the user to record videos and photos hands-free,” Myrthil said. “They also allow the user to potentially live stream their video.”
Jabbar wore the glasses during his New Year’s Day attack, but they were not activated for a live broadcast, according to Myrthil. There was no indication that he was recording the attack, although the glasses were found on Jabbar.
The FBI posted a compilation of the clips online, including Jabbar testing the glasses in a mirror and surveillance clips of him in the area before the truck attack. The FBI blurred images of bystanders.
The 42-year-old man was killed in a shootout with officers after he drove a rented truck across the busy strip in the early hours of New Year’s Day. Investigators also discovered that he placed two pipe bombs in the area before the attack, but neither of them detonated.
Authorities also believe Jabbar set fire to a short-term rental home on Mandeville Street in New Orleans, where bomb-making materials were found.
The video showed Jabbar placing an improvised explosive device in a cooler at Bourbon and St. Peter streets at 1:53 a.m., which was later moved by unidentified individuals.
“From what we’ve observed so far, what we’ve gathered through our investigation, is that they were unwitting individuals moving the cooler from one place to another without knowing what was in the cooler,” Myrthil said.
Jabbar placed another explosive approximately 30 minutes later in a different “bucket cooler.”
Two firearms, a semi-automatic pistol and a rifle, were also recovered during the investigation. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives found that the .308-caliber rifle was purchased at a private sale in Arlington, Texas, on Nov. 19.
Jabbar, a Texas-born U.S. citizen and Army veteran, said in videos posted online that he “joined ISIS earlier this year.” He acted alone during the New Year’s Day attack, the FBI said, and does not appear to have accomplices in the United States.
Myrthil told reporters on Sunday that the FBI is still investigating many of Jabbar’s associates, both at home and abroad. A subject of further investigation is a trip Jabbar took to Cairo in 2023 and another trip to Canada about a week after his return.
“Our agents are getting answers about where he went, who he met with and how those trips may or may not relate to his actions here in our city in New Orleans,” Myrthil said.
