As the investigation continues into the deadly New Year’s Day attack in New Orleans, more details are coming out about the man who drove a pickup truck into the crowd and the victims who were killed.

In all more than a dozen people were killed and dozens of others were hurt in the early morning of Jan. 1.

The driver of the pickup — Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42 — was a U.S. Army veteran who drove around a police blockade and hit those celebrating 2024 on Bourbon Street in the city’s French Quarter. The truck had an Islamic State group flag and explosive devices. President Joe Biden said that the FBI found videos of the man posted to social media that showed that the man was inspired by the Islamic State group and wanted to people, The Associated Press reported.

Biden to visit New Orleans

Updated 9:42 a.m. ET Jan. 3: President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden will travel to New Orleans on Monday to “grieve with the families and community members impacted by the tragic attack on January 1,” CNN reported.

He will also meet with officials there.

More victims identified

Updated 7:49 a.m. ET Jan. 3: More families are saying they lost someone in Wednesday’s attack.

Terrence Kennedy, 63, was killed according to his family. His niece Monisha James said they tried calling hospitals in the area when they couldn’t get in touch with him after the attack. They eventually identified his remains on Thursday, CBS News reported.

His family said he was a quiet man and had a large family in New Orleans. WDSU said that Kennedy was a New Orleans native and was the seventh of nine siblings. An avid sports fan, Kennedy, according to his sister, followed the Saints and Kansas City Chiefs, but she said his favorite team was the Pittsburgh Steelers, according to the television station.

Billy DiMaio, 25, grew up on Long Island, New York according to NOLA.com, but moved to Holmdel, New Jersey, where he was a star lacrosse player at Holmdel High School who graduated in 2017. He attended Chestnut Hill College in Philadelphia, where he studied business administration and eventually earned his master’s degree in organizational leadership in 2022, ABC News reported. DiMaio was an account executive for Audacy in New York.

Audacy released a statement which read: “Beyond his professional achievements, Billy will be fondly remembered for his unwavering work ethic, positive attitude, and kindness. He was a true asset to the Audacy team, and his contributions and presence will be deeply missed. Our thoughts are with Billy’s family and friends during this exceedingly difficult time, and we extend our deepest sympathies to them and every member of the Audacy family who had the privilege of working with him.”

DiMaio was in New Orleans to celebrate New Year’s and to visit with friends who were going to the Sugar Bowl.

Jabbar seen at Airbnb rental

Updated 2:51 p.m. ET Jan. 2: A man’s doorbell camera recorded Jabbar at an Airbnb a few miles from the scene of the deadly attack.

Michael Adasko said he was told at 9 a.m. on Wednesday that the block where he lives was being evacuated. He said that when officers learned he had video footage captured by his Ring doorbell camera, he was told to stay.

“As I continued to review the video more officials began to show up,” Adasko said, according to CNN.

The video showed Jabbar unloading the truck at about 10:02 p.m. Tuesday on Mandeville Street at an Airbnb next door to Adasko’s home. Mandeville Street is about three miles from Bourbon Street.

About an hour later, the truck was still there but with the lights on, the video showed, CNN reported.

Around 5 a.m. Adasko said he was awakened by the sound of fire trucks.

“There are a lot of variables that make this scary. At 5:10 a.m. I woke up to eight fire trucks putting out a fire at the Airbnb next door. We had smelled fire earlier in the night, but we thought it was fireworks,” Adasko said. “If my neighbor hadn’t called 911 around 4 a.m. we could’ve died.”

Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill told NBC News that the Airbnb was rented by Jabbar to allow him to assemble the explosive devices that were found in the city.

By the time fire crews reported to the Airbnb, Jabbar was already dead in the French Quarter.

Bourbon Street is open

Updated 1:54 p.m. ET Jan. 2: The reopening of Bourbon Street came earlier than expected.

NBC News reported that it was reopened at about 12:30 p.m. CT, or 1:30 p.m. ET.

Religious leaders and a band walked down the street before it reopened to everyone. They along with the city’s mayor paid respect to the victims by placing 14 roses on Bourbon Street and saying a prayer.

“And then in our culture, here in New Orleans, is music, and the band came … and they played, ‘Fly Away,’ and with respect, we walked down this street to show honor and respect,” Police Superintendent Anna Kirkpatrick said, according to CNN.

She warned those planning to go to the area that there will be many law enforcement officers there.

“You are going to see an incredibly large presence of police. We are confident, but we want our community to feel confident and know they are confident,” she said.

Barricades were also raised as the city took steps at “hardening the target” making that “any penetration would be next to impossible,” Kirkpatrick said.

Jabbar told neighbor he was moving

Updated 1:50 p.m. ET Jan. 2: One of Jabbar’s neighbors said he saw him loading a white truck with “light stuff” in Houston on Tuesday morning. Jabber told Mumtaz Bashir that he was moving to Louisana to start a new job, CNN reported. Jabbar told Bashir that it was IT-related.

Another victim identified

Updated 12:24 p.m. ET Jan. 2: Auburn University President Christopher Roberts has confirmed another victim of the attack was a university graduate — Drew Dauphin.

Dauphin was a 2023 graduate of Auburn, according to a post the school made on Instagram.

AL.com reported that Dauphin was a supplier process engineer at American Honda Motor Company Inc., according to his LinkedIn profile.

Death toll adjusted

Updated 11:30 a.m. ET Jan. 2: The death toll was adjusted down to 14 from the previous 15 to not include Jabbar. Another 35 people were hurt. Christopher Raia, deputy assistant director in the FBI counterterrorism division, announced the change on Thursday morning, The New York Times reported.

Raia said Jabbar acted alone, CNN reported. On Wednesday, Assistant Special Agent in Charge Alethea Duncan had said that Jabbar had been working with someone. But Raia revised that stance.

Raia said Jabbar joined ISIS this summer and posted five videos to Facebook prior to the attack as he drove from Houston to New Orleans. He rented the truck on Dec. 30 in Houston and drove to Louisiana on New Year’s Eve.

He had planned to target his own family and friends but was worried that the media would not focus on the “war between the believers and disbelievers,” the Times reported.

Three cell phones and two laptops that were linked to Jabbar have been recovered.

Two functional improvised explosive devices were found in the city and video footage showed Jabbar placing them where they were found, Raia said.

Jabbar was born in the U.S. and was a veteran.

Raia said that anyone who knew or saw Jabbar, especially in the French Quarter before the attack, especially people who saw the cooler that held one of the IEDs to contact the FBI.

More than 1,000 agents and officers are combing through data including interviews and surveillance video looking for leads, CNN reported. They have received more than 400 tips already, the AP reported.

The FBI said there was ‘no definitive link’ between the attack in New Orleans and the explosion in Las Vegas.

As previously stated, Bourbon Street will reopen today before the Sugar Bowl, Mayor LaToya Cantrell said. At first, vendors will be allowed on the street to service the businesses located there. It should be opened at 2:30 p.m. CT/3:30 p.m. ET, she said.

No other suspects: FBI, police say

Update 10:40 a.m. ET Jan. 2: The FBI and New Orleans police said there were no other suspects known to be part of the attack in the French Quarter, ABC News reported. They said that no one was in the area to help him at the time of the attack.

Despite that information, the FBI is still trying to determine who Jabbar communicated with before the attack.

Houston search finished

Update 9:57 a.m. ET Jan. 2: The search of a location in Houston that was believed to be connected to Jabbar has been finished.

The FBI said there was no threat to people living in that area but was not able to give any additional details because of the investigation, CNN reported.

Jabbar was from Houston, KHOU reported.

They only said that it was related to the attack in New Orleans, NBC News reported. There were no arrests, but the FBI did have members of its SWAT team, crisis negotiators, bomb technicians and counterterrorism investigators at the scene. There were also members of local law enforcement at the scene, KHOU reported.

The Houston news station described the location as “partially hidden behind a tall gate with sheet metal covering it.” Neighbors said it was a rental property with several mobile homes around it.

The FBI confirmed that there were “a number of court authorized search warrants in New Orleans and other states,” ABC News reported.

Bourbon Street to reopen, security in New Orleans ramped up

Update 8:38 a.m. ET Jan. 2: Bourbon Street will reopen on Thursday, the New Orleans Police said, according to NBC News. The FBI has cleared the scene, city council member Helena Moreno told CNN. Cleaning crews, she said, have been deployed.

Meanwhile, the Sugar Bowl, which was postponed on Wednesday due to the deadly incident, is scheduled to be played Thursday afternoon. As expected, security will be tight, similar to what the city had planned for the Super Bowl next month.

Officials said “hundreds of officers” will be patrolling on Thursday for the game, CNN reported.

The investigation continues into any connection that Jabbar may have had with others to plan the attack.

There are several “people of interest” that the New Orleans Police Department is looking into Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick told the “Today” show. They are not suspects at this time and the FBI is “tracking down everybody.”

Officials are also trying to determine if Jabbar was either inspired or directed by ISIS, according to Sajjan Gohel. Gohel is the International Security Director at the Asia-Pacific Foundation. He said that the attack was “potentially textbook ISIS.”

Gohel said the attack was well-planned.

“The fact that this individual was able to take his vehicle into a pedestrian part of Bourbon Street is important because it’s very likely that he had done reconnaissance, advanced planning. So he knew the route and he knew how to bypass security,” Gohel told CNN.

Original report: The FBI said that the man did not act alone in what they called a terrorist attack.

“We do not believe that Jabbar was solely responsible,” FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge Alethea Duncan said, according to the AP.

But New Orleans Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick called the carnage much worse than terrorism.

“This is not just an act of terrorism. This is evil,” Kirkpatrick said.

She said that the driver was “hell-bent on creating the carnage and damage that he did” after he “defeated” the blockade that was deployed to protect those celebrating in the French Quarter.

The typical barrier used was being repaired in advance of the Super Bowl next month so a police car was blocking the road. Officials said Jabbar drove his rented pickup onto a sidewalk to go around the cruiser.

Jabbar was killed in an exchange of gunfire with police. It was later found that Jabbar had a handgun and an AR-style rifle, the AP reported.

Who was Shamsud-Din Jabbar?

NBC News reported Jabbar was born in Beaumont, Texas, according to a YouTube video he had posted in 2020.

The AP reported that Jabbar joined the Army in 2007. While on active duty he was working in human resources and information technology. He deployed to Afghanistan from 2009 to 2010. He joined the Army Reserve in 2015 and left the Army in 2020, ending his military career as a staff sergeant. Jabbar was honorably discharged.

He attended Georgia State University from 2015 to 2017, graduating with a Bachelor of Business Administration in computer information systems, NBC News reported.

He had been working with Deloitte since 2021, NBC News reported.

Jabbar also had a real estate license which expired in 2023.

He was married and divorced twice. His second wife had requested a temporary restraining order against him in 2020. The order at the time prevented Jabbar and his ex-wife from “intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly causing bodily injury to the other party or to a child of either party” or “threatening the other party or a child of either party with imminent bodily injury.” Their divorce was dismissed in 2021 but then refiled in 2022. They had joint custody of their child, NBC News reported.

Who were the victims?

Nikyra Cheyenne Dedeaux, 18, had family in Gulfport, Mississippi. She was in New Orleans with her cousin to celebrate New Year’s Eve, The New York Times reported. She was supposed to start school at Blue Cliff College this month, majoring in nursing. She died the day after the anniversary of her grandfather’s death. Her mother had begged her not to Bourbon Street this year, she told ABC News.

Reggie Hunter, 37, was a father of two and died from internal injuries. He was with his cousin, traveling to the city from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to celebrate 2025. Hunter was a warehouse manager, his cousin told the Times. Another cousin, Kevin Curry, was injured in the attack. Hunter leaves behind two sons, ABC News reported.

Martin “Tiger” Bech, 27, was a former football player from Princeton University. He was from Lafayette, Louisiana. He graduated in 2021. Bech was a part of the 2016 and 2018 Ivy League Championship Teams, earning two All-Ivy honors for the Tigers, the university said. He was working for Seaport Global, a capital markets firm based in New York City, his mother told ABC News.

Kareem Badawi was a student at the University of Alabama. His father, Belal Badawi posted to Facebook that his son was killed “as a result of a tragic accident in New Orleans.”

Hubert Gauthreaux, 21, was from Marrero, Louisiana. Archbishop Shaw High School, from where Gauthreaux graduated in 2021, confirmed that he had been killed, ABC News reported.

Nicole Perez, 27, was a mom to her 4-year-old son her friend and boss told ABC News. Perez was recently promoted to store manager. She was out with friends in the French Quarter. She was taken to University Hospital where she died, ABC News reported.

Matthew Tenedorio, 25, worked at the Superdome and Smoothie King Center as a fiber optics and video professional. His parents confirmed his death to ABC News. They tried to get in touch with their son on Wednesday morning and talked to his friends who said that they had to split up when the truck crashed into the crowd. When the shooting stopped the group of friends said they couldn’t find Tenedorio. Louis Tenedorio told ABC News, “By noon, I had a good idea that something terrible happened to my son.”

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