NEW ORLEANS—A man in a pickup flying an Islamic State flag plowed into a large crowd in New Orleans’s French Quarter early New Year’s Day, killing at least 15 people and injuring more than 30 in what authorities called a terrorist attack.
Two police officers also were injured in a shootout with the suspect, an Army veteran , who was killed in the firefight.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation identified him as 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a U.S.-born citizen from Texas. The flag was attached to the trailer hitch of the rented Ford pickup, in which investigators found weapons and a potential explosive device. Investigators were working to learn more about the driver’s potential ties to terrorist organizations.
Hours before the attack, Jabbar posted videos on social media indicating he was inspired by ISIS, President Biden said after being briefed on the probe.
“We do not believe that Jabbar was solely responsible,” said Alethea Duncan, an assistant special agent-in-charge of the FBI’s New Orleans office. “We’re aggressively running down every lead, including those of his known associates.”
Jabbar served in the U.S. Army for 10 years, including a 2009 deployment to Afghanistan, rising to the rank of staff sergeant, a U.S. official said. After serving in active duty, he joined the Army Reserve, the official said.
A U.S. defense official said he served in the reserves from 2015 to 2020.
The attack took place about 3:15 a.m. on bustling Canal and Bourbon streets in the French Quarter, a historic neighborhood known for its architecture and busy bar and club scene. Investigators found two potential explosives during a sweep of the area, which bomb technicians rendered safe, Duncan said. The devices were hidden in blue coolers, contained nails and were wired to be detonated remotely, officials familiar with the investigation said.
The driver drove around barricades and got out of his vehicle with an assault rifle when confronted by police, officials said. He fired at the officers, who shot back, killing him. The officers who were shot are in stable condition. People familiar with the matter confirmed the death toll had risen to 15 as of Wednesday night.
“He was hell bent on creating the carnage and the damage that he did,” said New Orleans Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick .
“This man was trying to run over as many people as he possibly could,” Kirkpatrick said.
Law-enforcement and intelligence officials have been warning for months that conflict in the Middle East could inspire lone-wolf terrorists or small groups of extremists to carry out attacks in the U.S. Terrorist groups have been releasing propaganda, calling for violence at celebrations and religious institutions during the winter holidays.
Federal authorities told state and local officials last month that holiday gatherings would be prime targets for low-tech attacks—such as vehicle rammings—and urged them to remain vigilant.
Steel bollards on Bourbon Street meant to restrict road access and provide security in the busy tourist area are in the midst of getting repaired ahead of the Super Bowl, set to take place in the city next month, said New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell .
Kirkpatrick said police vehicles and other barriers were blocking streets, but the suspect drove around them and onto the sidewalk. “We did indeed have a plan,” she said, “but the terrorist defeated it.”
The White House said Biden offered Cantrell full federal support. “My heart goes out to the victims and their families who were simply trying to celebrate the holiday,” Biden said. “There is no justification for violence of any kind, and we will not tolerate any attack on any of our nation’s communities.”
President-elect Donald Trump called it “an act of pure evil” and said his administration would support New Orleans as it recovers.
The injured were taken to at least five different hospitals, officials said.
The attack was the latest in a disturbing trend of vehicles being used as weapons of mass violence. Last month, a 50-year-old doctor from Saudi Arabia rammed a car into a Christmas market in the eastern German town of Magdeburg, leaving at least two dead and more than 60 wounded. In 2023, Sayfullo Saipov was sentenced to life in prison for killing eight people by intentionally driving a truck onto a Manhattan bike path in a 2017 terrorist attack.
A few hours after the New Orleans incident, one person was killed and seven others injured when a Tesla Cybertruck exploded by the front doors of the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas on Wednesday morning. It wasn’t clear if there were any links, but the back-to-back events underscored the diverse security challenges facing law enforcement as the year begins.
“We’re very well aware of what happened in New Orleans,” said Kevin McMahill, the city’s sheriff, in a news conference Wednesday.
New Orleans had been preparing for several New Year’s festivities around the French Quarter, including a parade Tuesday afternoon and a countdown to midnight that started at 9 p.m.
The Sugar Bowl, a football game between the University of Georgia and University of Notre Dame, scheduled for Wednesday night at the Superdome, less than a mile from the incident, was postponed for 24 hours.
A.J. Fiechter, a senior at the University of Georgia who is visiting to attend the Sugar Bowl, said that he didn’t see steel-bollard barricades active when he was walking down Bourbon Street at roughly 2:30 a.m.
“They just had those metal ones that I could pick up with one hand, like a gate,” said Fiechter, 22. “The ones that are bolted to the ground, those are the ones that need to be there.”
Noah Preston, a 25-year-old student visiting from Raleigh, N.C., for the Sugar Bowl, said he was getting pizza around the corner from the incident when he heard screaming and sirens.
“It was hard to tell what was fireworks and what might have been gunshots,” he said. Preston went back to his hotel where people were frantically yelling at everyone to stay inside and that there were dead people on the street.
“We had no idea what was going on until this morning,” Preston said. “Waking up to this in the new year really hurts, it’s sad.”
Write to Sadie Gurman at sadie.gurman@wsj.com , Joseph Pisani at joseph.pisani@wsj.com and Laine Higgins at laine.higgins@wsj.com
