FBI: New Orleans truck attacker acted alone but investigation with Las Vegas explosion continues

WASHINGTON ? The FBI said Thursday the suspect in the New Orleans truck attack appeared to have acted alone and that there are no links to the explosion of a truck outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas on New Year's Day.

The FBI said at a news conference that the New Orleans driver ?Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42 ? appeared to have no accomplices, based on a review of five electronic devices, social media posts, interviews and thousands of hours of video.

“At this point, there is no definitive link between the attack here in New Orleans and the one in Las Vegas,” said Christopher Raia, deputy assistant director of the FBI’s counterterrorism division

President Joe Biden said the FBI, the Justice Department, the Department of Homeland Security, and the full intelligence community are investigating any potential connection between the New Orleans attack and the Las Vegas incident.

Biden convened national security officials Thursday in the White House Situation Room to receive an update on the investigation.

“We have no information that anyone else was involved in the attack,” Biden said of the New Orleans incident.

"We're also continuing to investigate whether or not there's any connection between the New Orleans attack and the explosion in Las Vegas," he said. "As of now, as of now, I have just been briefed, they have not found any evidence of such a connection thus far. I’ve directed them to keep looking.”

More: Man who rented Cybertruck that exploded in Las Vegas a Green Beret, official says

Bystanders, not accomplices

An early clue to more potential suspects in the New Orleans attack was that people were seen on surveillance video moving around two coolers that contained explosives. They turned out to be passersby.

Raia said the coolers – one found at Bourbon and Orleans streets, and another two blocks away – were left by Jabbar hours before the driving attack. Two other suspicious packages were determined not to be explosives.

More: 'An evil act': New Orleans driver believed to be a lone wolf, FBI says. Live updates

Raia said investigators have concluded Jabbar acted alone based on hundreds of interviews, a review of his social media accounts and his electronic devices that revealed nothing to suggest he was aided by anyone in the attack.

“We’re confident at this point that there is no accomplices,” Raia said. “We were able to put together a much more accurate picture of the suspect.”

A '1000-piece jigsaw'

Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry said information changed as investigators followed leads and interviewed people who knew the suspect.

“No one dumps a 1,000-piece jigsaw puzzle and puts it together in five seconds,” Landry said.

Jabbar picked up the rented truck on Dec. 30 and drove from Houston to New Orleans the evening of Dec. 31. He posted five videos on social media from 1:29 a.m. to 3:02 a.m. that explained his motivation for the attack and how he joined ISIS before this summer, Raia said.

More: Heartbreaking losses: Here are the victims of the New Orleans truck attack

Suspect considered attacking family and friends: FBI

“In the first video, Jabbar explains he originally planned to harm family and friends but was concerned the news headlines would not focus on the ‘war between the believers and the disbelievers,’” Raia said.

Raia said investigators reviewed five phones associated with Jabbar and two laptops recovered from a house in Mandeville, a community near New Orleans.

Agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are investigating a fire at the Mandeville location, according to Joshua Jackson, special agent in charge for ATF in New Orleans.

Two rented trucks, two cities, two suspects with military backgrounds

Possible connections between the incidents included that both suspects had served in the military and both rented trucks through Turo, an app that allows people to rent vehicles to each other. The suspect in New Orleans killed 14 and injured dozens with a Ford pickup truck. The explosion of a Tesla Cybertruck outside the Trump hotel killed the driver and injured seven others.

A Turo spokesperson said the company did not believe either of the renters of the vehicles involved in the Las Vegas and New Orleans attacks had a criminal background that would have identified them as a security threat.

The Las Vegas incident carried potential political implications because it occurred outside a hotel that is part of President-elect Donald Trump’s business and involved a vehicle manufactured by one of his top advisers and campaign funders, Elon Musk.

"Obviously a Cybertruck, the Trump hotel - there's lots of questions that we have to answer," Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Sheriff Kevin McMahill said at a news conference.

More: FBI: New Orleans truck attacker acted alone but investigation with Las Vegas explosion continues

Police said the truck was rented in Colorado, arrived in Las Vegas at around 7:30 a.m. PT and drove through the city's famed Strip, lined with hotels, casinos and entertainment venues, until it reached the hotel, where it stopped in the valet area.

Authorities identified the driver as Matthew Livelsberger, an active-duty Green Beret who had served in the Army for nearly 20 years.

"Detectives found gasoline canisters and large firework mortars in the bed of the truck," a police statement said.

Musk said the blast was unrelated to the 2024 model-year Cybertruck itself.

"We have now confirmed that the explosion was caused by very large fireworks and/or a bomb carried in the bed of the rented Cybertruck and is unrelated to the vehicle itself," Musk said in a post on X. "All vehicle telemetry was positive at the time of the explosion."

As part of the New Orleans investigation, the FBI and the Harris County Sheriff's Office are conducting an inquiry "related to this morning's New Orleans attack," the FBI's Houston office said Wednesday in a social media post on X.

Jabbar, a U.S. citizen who lived in Texas and was an Army veteran, carried an ISIS flag on the trailer hitch of the truck he rented, the FBI said.

Police cruisers blocked off roads on Wednesday around a property in Houston that public records list for Jabbar. The residence is northwest of downtown along a leafy, semi-industrial dead-end road across from a county maintenance facility and a manufacturing office building.

Local and national law enforcement authorities gathered at the scene did not speak with reporters, who were being kept behind a fence nearby. A tactical team could be seen outside the home behind an armored SWAT truck, while officers were flying drones overhead as they continue their investigation.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: FBI: New Orleans attacker acted alone but investigation continues