The FBI says the terrorist attack in New Orleans has nothing to do with the Tesla explosion

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The New Year’s Day attack in New Orleans was an “act of terrorism” but was not related to the explosion of a Tesla Cybertruck in Las Vegas just hours later, according to the FBI.

While investigating New Orleans attack The FBI said it believed the alleged perpetrator of the attack, US Army veteran Shams al-Din Jabbar, was in its early stages and that he acted alone.

“It was a malicious and premeditated act,” FBI Deputy Assistant Director Christopher Raya said Thursday. “We are confident at this point that there are no accomplices (sic).”

Also, “there was no specific link between the attack here in New Orleans and the attack that occurred there.” Vegas“At this point,” Raya said.

14 people were killed and 35 others were injured when a man drove a pickup truck into a large crowd and opened fire in the heart of the city. New Orleans In the early hours of New Year’s Day. Jabbar was also killed in a shootout with police.

The atrocities in New Orleans and the explosion in Las Vegas have shaken Americans at the end of the busy holiday season, raising concerns about crime in the US, with Donald Trump. Trying to shift the blame Joe Biden’s policies on violence.

Biden was briefed Thursday on what the White House also described as a terrorist attack.

The FBI said it was investigating Jabbar’s possible ties to terrorist organizations. On Wednesday, Raya said, the agency found an ISIS flag on his truck, as well as two “functional” IEDs in the street, which were disabled by law enforcement.

Three phones and two laptops linked to Jabbar were also recovered from the searches, and investigators said they had begun to piece together a timeline of the attack.

Jabbar had boarded a rented Ford F-150 pickup truck in Houston, Texas, on December 30, and headed east to New Orleans the next day.

In videos posted on Facebook, Jabbar declared his support for ISIS and said he originally planned to target family and friends, but “was concerned that the headlines would not focus on the war between believers and infidels,” Raya said.

The FBI said Jaber claimed to have joined ISIS over the summer and wrote a will.

A few hours after his devastating attack in New Orleans, a Tesla Cybertruck exploded outside the Trump Hotel in Las Vegas.

Las Vegas Mayor Kevin McMahill said Thursday that investigators are “not aware” of anyone else involved in the case other than the Cybertruck’s driver, who was initially identified as Matthew Livelsperger, 37, who is also a decorated U.S. soldier.

The driver suffered a gunshot wound to the head, which police believe was self-inflicted before the explosion, McMahill said, standing in front of photos of the charred remains of the Cybertruck.

Police found Livelsberger’s military ID, passport and credit cards, as well as a .50-caliber Desert Eagle semi-automatic pistol, a cell phone and a smart watch.

Al-Sharif added that Tesla CEO, Elon Musk, sent a team to Las Vegas to collect footage captured from cameras inside the Cybertruck.

An FBI official said the motive behind the Las Vegas “bombing” has not yet been determined.

Kenny Cooper, special agent for the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives in Las Vegas, said the “level of sophistication” of the bomb in the electronic truck was “not what we would expect from an individual with that kind of military experience.” .

Jabbar, a 42-year-old US citizen from Texas, was a US Army veteran and worked for the consulting firm Deloitte. The company said Thursday that Jabbar has had an “employee-level role” since 2021.

Deloitte added: “We are outraged by this shameful and senseless act of violence, and are doing everything we can to assist the authorities in their investigation.”

The US Army said that Jabbar worked as a specialist in human resources and information technology between 2007 and 2020. He was deployed to Afghanistan between February 2009 and January 2010.

The Army also confirmed that Livelsberger was a serving U.S. soldier. At the time of his death, the sergeant was assigned to the U.S. Army Special Operations Command and was on approved leave from duty in Germany. Livelsberger was a Green Beret, a member of the elite U.S. Army Special Forces, McMahill said.

Both Livelsberger and Jabbar were stationed at Fort Bragg (now Fort Liberty) in North Carolina, but there was no record that they served there in the same unit or at the same time, McMahill said. There was also no evidence that they served together in Afghanistan, although investigators continue to look for any possible connection between the two men.

Additional reporting by Felicia Schwartz in Washington