The FBI Wednesday confirmed reports the suspect had planted an IS flag in the pickup truck he used to plow into a crowd on Bourbon Street in the early hours of Wednesday morning before he was killed during a shootout with police.
U.S. President Joe Biden said the FBI found the suspect had taken other actions “mere hours before the attack” to make his loyalty known.
Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a 42-year-old U.S. citizen and former Army reservist, had “posted videos on social media indicating that it was inspired by ISIS,” Biden said, using another name for the terror group.
“The situation is very fluid,” Biden added. “The law enforcement and intelligence community are continuing to look for any connections, associations or co-conspirators,” he said.
One of the first IS-linked attacks using a vehicle as a weapon took place in Nice, France, in 2016. A 31-year-old Tunisian-born Frenchman who was divorced and suffered from depression plowed into a Bastille Day celebration, killing more than 80 people.
Months later, a 24-year-old Tunisian man used a truck to drive into crowds at a Christmas market in Berlin, killing 13 people. He, too, posted a video pledging allegiance to IS before carrying out the attack.
