The driver who killed 14 people in an ISIS-inspired car attack in New Orleans used an extremely rare explosive compound in two homemade bombs that failed to explode, two people briefed on the matter said. a senior law enforcement official told NBC News.
Officials say the explosives have never been used in a terrorist attack or incident in the United States or in Europe. The key question for investigators now is how the attacker, Shamsuddin Jabbar, learned about the explosives and how he manufactured them.
Neither homemade device exploded, and it remains unclear whether the failure was caused by a malfunction, malfunction, or another problem. Authorities said Jabbar planned to use the transmitter to detonate two bombs placed in a cooler.
The FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives said in a joint statement Friday that two explosive devices were placed on Bourbon Street and then detonated by the jabber.
The transmitter and two guns were recovered from Jabbar’s truck and are being transported to an FBI laboratory for testing, the statement said.
The massacre erupted when Jabbar, 42, drove his pickup truck onto the sidewalk, swerving around a parked police vehicle to block cars from celebrating pedestrians on the busy street.
Police killed Jabbar, a Texas-born American citizen and military veteran, shortly after the attack.
A joint statement on Friday said Jabbar also set fire to a short-term rental home on Mandeville Street in New Orleans, where bomb-making materials were found and “the building and other evidence of crimes were destroyed.” “I tried to destroy it,” he added.
The New Orleans Fire Department said it was dispatched around 5:18 a.m. after Jabbar carried out the attack on Bourbon Street, but the fire “extinguished itself” before spreading to other rooms and “no evidence containing evidence was found.” “We were able to recover “precursors of bomb-making materials and a privately made device suspected to be a rifle silencer,” the statement said.
Authorities said in a statement that it was determined that Jabbar was the only person who may have started the fire.
The FBI said the investigation is ongoing and remains unchanged that Mr. Jabbar acted alone.
A period of remembrance for the victims of the attack begins Monday when President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden visit New Orleans.
