The New Orleans terrorist visited the city twice in the weeks before the attack and used Meta smart glasses to record video of the area, the FBI said Sunday.
Shamsuddin Jabbar, 42, had been staying in a rented house in New Orleans in late October and again in November, weeks before the Bourbon Street attack that killed 14 people. Lionel Marcil, special agent in charge of the FBI’s New Orleans field office, said Sunday that he was wearing smart glasses and recording video as he rode his bicycle through the French Quarter.
“Metaglass looks like regular glasses, but it allows users to record videos and photos hands-free,” Mirchir said. “There is also the possibility that users will be able to live stream through their own videos.”
Mr. Jabbar was wearing glasses during the New Year’s Day attack, but the glasses were not working on the livestream, Mr. Mircil said. Jabbar’s glasses were found, but there was no evidence that Jabbar was recording the attack.
Meta spokesperson Andy Stone told NBC News that the company is “in contact with law enforcement regarding this matter.”
The FBI posted a compilation of footage online, including footage of Jabbar testing his glasses in a mirror and security footage from the scene before the truck attack. . The FBI blurred the image of the bystander.
Jabbar, 42, was killed in a shootout with police early in the new year after forcing his rented truck through a downtown area. Investigators also determined that the suspect had placed two homemade bombs in the area before the attack, but neither exploded.
Authorities also believe that Jabbar set fire to a short-term rental home on Mandeville Street in New Orleans, where bomb-making materials were discovered.
Video shows Jabbar placing one improvised explosive device in a cooler at Bourbon Street and St. Peter Street at 1:53 a.m., which was later removed by an unknown person.
“What we’ve seen so far, what we’ve gathered through our research, is that they were unwitting people moving coolers from place to place without knowing what was in them. That’s true,” Mircil said.
About 30 minutes later, Jabbar placed another explosive device in another “bucket cooler,” authorities said.
Two firearms, a semi-automatic pistol and a rifle, were also recovered. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives discovered the .308 caliber rifle was purchased in a private sale in Arlington, Texas, on November 19th.
The explosives recovered at Jabbar’s Houston home are similar to common explosives such as RDX, which are widely available in the United States, said Joshua Jackson, special agent in charge of the ATF’s New Orleans field division. He said this at a press conference on Sunday.
Federal authorities initially announced Friday that field tests had detected R-salt, a rare explosive compound, in two homemade bombs in New Orleans and in the home where Jabbar was staying. R-Salt is an extremely rare compound that has never been used in terrorist attacks in the United States or Europe.
Jackson said the FBI will conduct additional testing of the explosive compound found in New Orleans. He said officials believe additional testing at the FBI laboratory will show that the explosive compound is actually pure RDX.
The device itself was of no special design, and Jabber’s use of an electric match instead of a proper detonator showed his inexperience with explosives, Jackson said.
“I joined ISIS earlier this year,” Jabbar, a Texas-born U.S. citizen and military veteran, said in a video posted online. The FBI said he appeared to have acted alone in the New Year’s Day attack and had no accomplices based in the United States.
Mr. Mircil told reporters on Sunday that the FBI was investigating Mr. Jabbar’s associates at home and abroad. The subject of further investigation is Mr. Jabbar’s trip to Cairo in 2023 and another trip to Canada that took place approximately a week after his return.
“Our agents are working hard to get answers about where he went, who he met with, and how those trips may or may not connect to his actions here in the city of New Orleans. “We are working hard,” Marcil said.
