The New Orleans terrorist attacker visited the Louisiana city twice in the weeks before the attack and recorded video of the area using Meta smart glasses, the FBI revealed Sunday.
Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, stayed at a rental home in New Orleans at the end of October and again in November, just weeks prior to his attack on Bourbon Street that killed 14 people. He wore the smart glasses to record video as he rode a bicycle through the French Quarter during that trip, FBI Special Agent in Charge Lyonel Myrthil said on Sunday.
“Meta glasses appear to look like regular glasses, but they allow a user to record videos and photos hand-free,” Myrthil said. “They also allow the user to potentially livestream through their video.”
Jabbar wore the glasses during his New Year’s Day attack, but they were not activated for a livestream, according to Myrthil. There was no indication he was recording the attack at all, though the glasses were found on Jabbar.
A compilation of the clips was posted online by the FBI, which includes Jabbar testing the glasses in a mirror and surveillance clips of him in the are prior to the truck attack. Images of bystanders were blurred by the FBI.
The 42-year-old was killed in a firefight with officers after he plowed through the busy strip with a rented truck in the early hours of New Year’s Day. Investigators also found that he placed two homemade bombs in the area prior to the attack, but neither device detonated.
Authorities also believe Jabbar set fire to a short-term rental house on Mandeville Street in New Orleans, where bomb-making materials were found.
Video showed Jabbar placing one improvised explosive device in a cooler at Bourbon and St. Peter Streets at 1:53 a.m., which was moved later by unidentified individuals.
“From what we’ve observed so far — what we’ve gathered through our investigation — is that they were unwitting individuals who move the cooler from location to location without knowledge of what is in the cooler,” Myrthil said.
Jabbar placed another explosive roughly 30 minutes later in a different “bucket-type cooler.”
Two firearms were also recovered in the investigation, a semiautomatic pistol and a rifle. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives found the .308-caliber rifle was purchased in a private sale in Arlington, Texas, on Nov. 19.
Jabbar, a Texas-born U.S. citizen and an Army veteran, said in videos posted online that he “joined ISIS earlier this year.” He acted alone during the New Year’s Day attack, the FBI said, and does not appear to have any U.S.-based accomplices.
Myrthil told reporters Sunday that the FBI is still investigating many of Jabbar’s associates, both domestic and abroad. One subject of further inquiry is a trip Jabbar made to Cairo in 2023 and another trip to Canada roughly a week after his return.
“Our agents are getting answers as to where he went, who he met with, and how those trips may or may not tie into his actions here in our city in New Orleans,” Myrthil said.
