FBI now believes driver responsible for the terrorist attack in New Orleans acted alone

In a reversal from an offical FBI statement less than 24 hours earlier, the FBI  Counterterrorism Division Deputy Assistant Christopher Raia announced at a press conference that the suspect in the deadly rampage on Bourbon Street Shamsud-Din Jabbar is likely to have acted alone.

“We do not assess at this point that anyone else is involved in this attack except for Shamsud-Din Jabbar, the subject you’ve already been briefed on,” said Raia. 

Officials had said on Wednesday that they were seeking additional potential suspects in the attack. Assistant Special Agent in Charge Alethea Duncan said, “We do not believe that Jabbar was solely responsible..”

The FBI also revealed that the driver is a U.S. citizen from Texas, who posted five videos on his Facebook account in the hours before the attack in which he aligned himself with ISIS and mentions he he had joined the militant group last summer.

Investigators recovered a black flag on the Islamic State in the truck and found guns and what appeared to be an improvised explosive device inside the vehicle. Other explosive devices were reported elsewhere in the French Quarter.

Officials fanned out to serve search warrants and spent hours at a Houston-area home thought to be connected to the investigation. But as of Thursday afternoon, no additional arrests were known to have been made.

The rampage turned festive Bourbon Street into a horrifying scene of maimed bodies and bloodied victims and pedestrains fleeing for safety inside nightclubs and restaurants. In addition to the dead, dozens of people were hurt.

The attack killed 14 people, including an 18-year-old woman who had ambitions of becoming a nurse.

Authorities initially put the death toll at 15, including Shamsud-Din Jabbar, who was fatally shot in a firefight with police.

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