Driver Who Killed 14 in ISIS-Inspired Attack Used Rare Explosive Compound in Homemade Bombs
A driver who killed 14 people in an ISIS-inspired vehicular attack in New Orleans used a very rare explosive compound in two homemade bombs that did not detonate, according to two senior law enforcement officials. The explosive has never been used in a U.S. terrorist attack or incident, nor in a European one. Investigators are now trying to determine how the attacker, Shamsud-Din Jabbar, learned about the explosive and how he managed to produce it.
The two homemade devices were placed in coolers and were intended to be detonated using a transmitter. However, neither of the devices exploded, and it is unclear whether the failure was due to a malfunction, lack of activation, or another issue. The FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives recovered the transmitter and two guns from Jabbar’s truck and are transporting them to an FBI laboratory for testing.
Jabbar, a 42-year-old U.S. citizen and Army veteran, drove onto a sidewalk with a pickup truck, bypassing a police vehicle that had been parked to block cars from pedestrians celebrating on the crowded street. He was killed by police moments after the attack. Jabbar had also set fire to a short-term rental house on Mandeville Street in New Orleans, where bomb-making materials were found, in an effort to destroy evidence of his crime.
The New Orleans Fire Department responded to the fire, but it had extinguished itself before spreading to other rooms, allowing for the recovery of evidence, including pre-cursors for bomb-making material and a privately made device suspected of being a silencer for a rifle. The FBI has stated that the investigation remains ongoing and that it has not changed its posture that Jabbar acted alone.
A mourning period for the victims of the attack will begin Monday, when President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden will travel to New Orleans.