Car ramming in New Orleans: death toll reassessed at fifteen and thirty-five injured hospitalized

The suspect was identified by the FBI. EPA – SHAWN FINK

A man "determined" to "carnage" on New Year's Eve in New Orleans drove his vehicle into a crowd on Wednesday, January 1, in the French Quarter of this southern city. The toll is at least fifteen dead and 35 injured, the Louisiana city coroner said in a statement Wednesday evening. An Islamic State flag was found in the attacker's car.

The man suspected of driving his vehicle into a crowd in New Orleans, killing at least fifteen people and injuring 35 others, has been identified by the FBI. After running over people with his pickup truck, he then got out of the vehicle and opened fire on the crowd and police. The suspect is Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a 42-year-old American citizen and former soldier, the federal police announced in a statement on Wednesday, January 1.

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“The subject has been identified as Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, a U.S. citizen from Texas”, specifies The FBI has issued a statement about the suspect in the New Year's Eve attack in Louisiana's largest city in the southern United States. “He was driving a Ford pickup truck, which had apparently been rented,” the statement continued. The man was shot dead after an exchange of gunfire with police, the FBI specifies.

A flag of the Islamic State in the vehicle

The suspected perpetrator of the vehicle-ramming attack that killed at least 10 people in New Orleans on Wednesday had an ISIS flag in his pickup truck, the FBI said. Improvised explosive devices were found in his truck and defused by police.

“An Islamic State flag was found in the vehicle, and the FBI is working to determine the individual's potential associations and affiliations with terrorist organizations,”, the FBI said in its statement. Police also said the suspect may not have acted alone.

A city “so dear to the hearts of the French” “struck by terrorism”

Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday sent his “thoughts” to the “families of the victims and to the injured” of the vehicle attack in New Orleans, a city “so dear to the hearts of the French”.

The French head of state also expressed his emotion “to the American people whose pain we share”, in a message on X. Emmanuel Macron visited New Orleans in December 2022, founded at the beginning of the 18th century by French colonists, and today “struck by terrorism”, according to the president. “There is no excuse for such violence”, said Estonian EU Foreign Minister Kaja Kallas