Bomb technicians, crisis negotiators, and tactical teams were sent by the FBI to the suspected Houston residence of a man who is suspected of crashing a truck into a crowd in New Orleans on New Year’s Day, killing at least 14 people and wounding scores more.
Throughout the late hours of Wednesday and Thursday morning, a number of law enforcement agencies stayed outside the house, encircled with police cruisers. While a temporary aircraft restriction was in place, officers encouraged the public to stay away from the area. According to officials, the court-authorized search of the house was completed Thursday morning.
Reversing its stance from a day earlier that he probably collaborated with others in the deadly attack that authorities claimed was motivated by the Islamic State group, the FBI said Thursday that the U.S. Army veteran who crashed a pickup truck into a gathering of New Year’s revelers acted alone.
The FBI also disclosed that the driver, a U.S. national named Shamsud-Din Jabbar, uploaded five videos to his Facebook page in the hours prior to the assault, announcing his backing for the militant organization and previewing the carnage he would soon inflict in the city’s renowned French Quarter neighborhood.
“Terrorism was committed here. Christopher Raia, the deputy assistant director of the FBI’s counterterrorism section, described Jabbar as “100% inspired” by the Islamic State and stated, “It was a premeditated and evil act.”
Fourteen revelers were slain in the incident, including Jabbar, who was shot dead in a shootout with police after driving his fast truck around a barricade and into the crowd.
In an effort to allay fears of larger conspiracies, Raia emphasized that there was no proof linking the incident in New Orleans to the Wednesday explosion of a Tesla Cybertruck outside Trump’s hotel in Las Vegas.
After 24 hours of its investigation, the FBI claimed it was certain that 42-year-old Jabbar was not assisted by anyone else in the attack that murdered an 18-year-old aspiring nurse, a father of two, and a former Princeton University football player. The FBI said it was still looking for clues.
Houston home searched
Jabbar was from Harris County, according to court documents, and searches turned up a Houston address that matched his name. On Wednesday afternoon, while news reporters and police enforcement crowded the nearby streets, chickens, goats, and ducks wandered the gated yard.
RELATED: A Houston man is suspected of carrying out a terrorism-related act in a deadly truck attack in New Orleans.
Tactical SWAT teams were positioned in front of the house where Jabbar allegedly lived prior to causing mayhem on New Orleans Bourbon Street just after 4 p.m. on Wednesday. Officers called for someone to leave the house over a loud speaker.
According to a statement released Wednesday evening by the FBI Houston division, the Harris County Sheriff’s Office and FBI Houston are still conducting a court-authorized search of a location close to the intersection of Hugh Road and Crescent Peak Drive. No arrests have been made as of yet, and FBI officers will remain on the area for a few more hours.
On Wednesday, a team of counterterrorism investigators, the FBI SWAT team, Crisis Negotiators, Special Agent Bomb Technicians, Tactical Operations Center, and Evidence Responses Team were sent to the area in northwest Houston.
According to national agency officials, the truck incident is being looked at as a possible act of terrorism. Investigators were searching the French Quarter on Wednesday for possible explosives after discovering an Islamic State flag affixed to the automobile that was allegedly carrying an explosive device.
The FBI field division in Houston is urging anyone with information about the attack in New Orleans to provide it online.
This report was contributed to by the Associated Press.
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