New Orleans attacker had transmitter to trigger explosive devices, FBI says

The driver who killed 14 people in an ISIS-inspired attack by speeding down a crowded New Orleans street on New Year’s Day planned to use a transmitter to detonate two explosive devices he had placed nearby, authorities said.

The FBI and ATF said in a joint statement Friday that the explosives were placed on Bourbon Street, which Shamsud-Din Jabbar then transformed into a scene of devastation.

None of the explosive devices detonated and it remains unclear whether the failure was due to a malfunction, lack of activation or another problem. The transmitter and two firearms were recovered from Jabbar’s truck, the release said, and are being transported to an FBI laboratory for testing.

Federal investigators looking into the attack say Jabbar used a very rare explosive compound in both devices, two senior law enforcement officials briefed on the matter told NBC News.

Authorities are investigating how Jabbar acquired the knowledge needed to create the homemade explosive, officials said.

These officials say the explosive was never used in a terrorist attack or incident in the United States, nor in any European terrorist attack. A key question for investigators is how Jabbar learned of this compound and how he managed to produce it.

The carnage occurred when Jabbar, 42, drove onto a sidewalk with a pickup truck, circling a police vehicle that had been parked to prevent pedestrians from celebrating on the crowded street.

Police killed Jabbar, a Texas-born U.S. citizen and Army veteran, moments after the attack.

Jabbar also set fire to a short-term rental home on Mandeville Street in New Orleans where bomb-making materials were found, Friday’s joint statement added, “in his efforts to destroy it and other evidence of his crime.”

New Orleans firefighters responded to the fire around 5:18 a.m., after Jabbar led the attack on Bourbon Street, but the fire “burned out” before spreading to other rooms, allowing “Recovering evidence including precursors for making bombs and a privately manufactured device believed to be a silencer for a rifle,” the statement said.

The agencies said in the release that it was determined that Jabbar was the only person who could have set the fire.

The FBI said the investigation was still ongoing and that it had not changed its position that Jabbar acted alone.

A period of mourning for victims of the attack will begin Monday, when President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden visit New Orleans.