Was meticulous planning of the attack in New Orleans. Shamsud-Din Jabbarthe author of the massive attack perpetrated on New Year’s in the North American city, tried to have a fire destroy traces that could lead to him to the police, according to the first conclusions of the FBI, communicated last night by that federal investigation agency.
After the five in the morning on January 1, When all the attention of the city’s security forces was focused on the massacre on Bourbon Street and the subsequent shootout between the terrorist and the police in which the attacker was killed, the New Orleans Fire Department had to send a truck to respond to a fire in a house on Mandeville Street.
The place where some flames had started turned out to be the last residence used by Jabbar, which is not the main one – also registered – that the former military man had in Houston (Texas), but the place he used as a base to organize his attack.
The FBI has determined that the murderer had set the fire. As revealed by the agency, Jabbar He placed fire accelerants in various rooms and hallways of the home. Investigators believe that this planning responded to an attempt to destroy evidence. But it went wrong for Jabbar: the fire extinguished itself, burning only one of the rooms in which he had placed flammable material.
Shamsud Din Jabbar, in a photo distributed by the FBI Press Office / FBI
Investigators were able to pick up at the Mandeville Street residence a rifle silencer that had been manufactured Jabbar artisanally, as well as various types of precursors to compose explosive devices.
Traps on the street
These precursors are also in the composition of the two bombs that Jabbar planted on Bourbon Street. A radio transmitter for activate those improvised explosive devices He was found by investigators in the pickup van that the terrorist used in the attack. Next to the transmitter were two other firearms carried by the attacker, and which appeared among a large group of bullet casingsthe result of Jabbar firing shots at the crowd that was fleeing at that time and at the New Orleans police officers who were attacking him.
The FBI, the agency whose continuity is threatened by plans to reduce public spending in the imminent arrival of the Trump administration, has incorporated 200 agents to analyze the evidence collected, which are carried out in various offices in the United States. Are “almost 1,000” test and trace items, as published by the investigation direction, collected in the 48 hours following the commission of the accident.
The research also includes a assessment of the damage suffered by 35 injured people. It is not a closed figure, like that of the 14 dead in the attack: The FBI believes that the list of injured will increase as people go to hospitals or the agency’s offices in Louisiana to report damage and consequences.
