New Orleans Truck Attack: FBI Findings, Bollard Lawsuits, and Victims

The New Orleans Bourbon Street truck attack occurred in the early hours of January 1, 2025, when 42-year-old Army veteran Shamsud-Din Jabbar drove a rented Ford F-150 Lightning around a police barricade and into New Year’s crowds in the French Quarter, killing 14 people and injuring at least 57 others. The FBI classified the attack as terrorism and concluded that Jabbar acted alone, inspired by the Islamic State group but with no operational ties to it. He was killed in a shootout with police within minutes of the ramming.

What Happened That Morning

The attack began at approximately 3:15 a.m. as revelers filled Bourbon Street. Jabbar steered the rented pickup around a police vehicle positioned to block the corridor, mounted the sidewalk near Canal Street, and accelerated through pedestrians. When the truck stopped, he opened fire on responding officers. Two officers were wounded and reported in stable condition. Jabbar was killed at the scene.¹

Investigators recovered firearms from the truck along with an ISIS flag attached to the trailer hitch. Two improvised explosive devices concealed in coolers were also found on Bourbon Street, and surveillance footage later showed Jabbar placing them before the ramming.² Neither device detonated. According to ATF Special Agent in Charge Joshua Jackson, Jabbar used the wrong triggering mechanism, a failure officials attributed to inexperience.³

The devices were built from galvanized steel pipe with end caps, packed with roughly two dozen rolls of collated nails, and fitted with radio-controlled receivers.³ The FBI later said the explosive was most likely RDX, a military-grade compound.⁴ Agents also searched a short-term rental Jabbar had used on Mandeville Street in New Orleans, where they found bomb-making materials, a suspected rifle silencer, and signs he had set a fire with accelerants shortly after the attack in an apparent attempt to destroy evidence.⁵ More precursor chemicals and bottles of sulfuric acid were recovered from a storage unit in Texas.

Who Was Killed

The 14 people who died ranged in age from 18 to 63 and came from Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas, New York, and England. The FBI identified 136 victims in total, including the deceased, the injured, and two businesses that suffered damages.⁶ The dead were:

Kareem Badawi, 18, a freshman engineering student at the University of Alabama from Baton Rouge.
Martin “Tiger” Bech, 27, a Princeton graduate and bond trader from Lafayette, Louisiana.
Andrew “Drew” Dauphin, 26, a 2023 Auburn graduate.
Nikyra Cheyenne Dedeaux, 18, an aspiring nursing student and recent high school graduate.
William “Billy” DiMaio, 25, a Long Island native and account executive at Audacy who had played lacrosse at Chestnut Hill College.
Hubert Gauthreaux, 21, a graduate of Archbishop Shaw High School and former baseball player.
Reggie Hunter, 37, a Baton Rouge warehouse manager and father of two.
Terrence “Terry” Kennedy, 63, a New Orleans native.
Nicole Perez, 27, a store manager and single mother.
LaTasha Polk, 47, a nursing assistant and mother of a teenage son.
Edward Pettifer, 31, a London resident and stepson of Alexandra “Tiggy” Legge-Bourke, who had served as nanny to Princes William and Harry in the 1990s.
Brandon Taylor, 43, a musician and cook from Harvey, Louisiana.
Matthew Tenedorio, 25, an audiovisual technician who worked for the New Orleans Saints and Pelicans.
Elliot Wilkinson, 40, of Slidell, Louisiana.

Pettifer’s death drew international coverage. Prince William said he and Catherine were “shocked and saddened,” and King Charles personally contacted the family.⁷

Who the Attacker Was

Shamsud-Din Jabbar was a U.S.-born citizen who grew up in Beaumont, Texas, and was living in a mobile home in northwest Houston. He served in the U.S. Army from 2007 to 2015 as a human resources and IT specialist, including a 2009–2010 deployment to Afghanistan, and remained in the Army Reserve until 2020. After the military he ran several now-defunct real estate businesses and worked briefly for Deloitte.⁸

According to the FBI, Jabbar said he joined ISIS before the summer of 2024. Between 1:29 a.m. and 3:02 a.m. on January 1, minutes before the attack, he posted five videos to Facebook proclaiming support for ISIS and calling for a “war between the believers and the disbelievers.” He said he had originally planned to target family and friends but switched to a public attack to ensure news coverage.²

Jabbar had traveled to Cairo from June 22 to July 3, 2023, and to Ontario, Canada, from July 10 to July 13, 2023.⁹ He also visited New Orleans at least twice in October and November 2024, apparently scouting the area. The FBI examined whether the overseas travel was tied to the attack but found no link to foreign actors.¹⁰

The truck was rented through Turo, a peer-to-peer car-sharing app, from a private owner in Houston who cooperated with investigators.¹¹ Turo also processed the rental of the Tesla Cybertruck used in a same-day explosion outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas. CEO Andre Haddad noted that both renters had valid licenses, clean records, and honorable military service and said the company would consult with counterterrorism experts, though it announced no immediate policy changes.¹²

The FBI’s Lone-Actor Conclusion

The FBI initially suggested Jabbar might have had help after surveillance footage appeared to show others near the explosive devices. Within days, agents clarified that those people were bystanders and concluded Jabbar was solely responsible.¹³ FBI Deputy Assistant Director Christopher Raia said Jabbar was “100% inspired by ISIS” and that nothing in his call records, digital devices, or interviews suggested anyone assisted him.¹⁴ Jabbar was not on any federal watchlist at the time of the attack, according to a congressional briefing by the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division on January 2.¹⁵

Investigators also looked at whether Jabbar had any connection to Matthew Livelsberger, the active-duty Green Beret behind the Las Vegas Cybertruck explosion. Both were military veterans who had served at Fort Liberty and deployed to Afghanistan in 2009, but the FBI found no evidence the two were in contact, served in the same unit, or were otherwise linked.¹⁶

Why the Bollards Weren’t There

Jabbar reached Bourbon Street because the bollards designed to block vehicles were not working. The city had removed the original steel bollards, installed in 2017 after vehicle-ramming attacks in Europe, and begun replacing them with stainless-steel versions in November 2024, with completion expected in February 2025 ahead of the Super Bowl. The old bollards had repeatedly failed, clogged by Mardi Gras beads and often inoperable.¹⁷

The vulnerability had been flagged years earlier. In 2019, the private security firm Interfor International, hired by the French Quarter Management District, produced a confidential assessment that called a vehicle-ramming attack “highly possible while moderately probable” and described the French Quarter as an “open air thoroughfare with little to no access control.” The firm recommended fixing the bollards “immediately” and cited “internecine politics and bickering” among local agencies as a serious obstacle. Interfor CEO Don Aviv said the firm never heard back from the city after submitting the report.¹⁸

With the bollards out of service on New Year’s Eve, the NOPD parked patrol cars and set up white gate barriers at access points. Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said officers had tried to “harden those target areas” and later conceded, “We did indeed have a plan, but the terrorist defeated it.”¹⁹ Metal barrier sheets known as “archers,” available in a city lot and capable of adding protection, were not deployed until the day after the attack. Kirkpatrick said she had been unaware the city had them.²⁰ Former NYPD Chief of Detectives Robert Boyce called the lapse “unacceptable,” and former Secret Service official Donald Mihalek said the failure to anticipate a vehicle attack during construction was a planning failure.

Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill opened an investigation into the security failures and requested a preliminary report by mid-April 2025.²¹ The bollard replacement project was completed in February 2025 as scheduled.²²

Lawsuits Against the City and Contractors

Civil suits followed within days. The first was filed January 10, 2025, by attorney Morris Bart on behalf of six survivors and the family of victim Brandon Taylor, naming the City of New Orleans, Hard Rock Construction (the bollard replacement contractor), and the engineering firm Mott MacDonald. The complaint alleged the defendants ignored years of warnings and selected bollards certified only for impacts up to 12 miles per hour, well below what was needed to stop a speeding truck.²¹

A second, broader suit was filed January 29, 2025, on behalf of 21 survivors and victims’ relatives. It added the New Orleans Police Department and the French Quarter Management District as defendants, alleging the city had prioritized Super Bowl preparations over New Year’s Eve safety and that the NOPD failed to follow adequate security protocols.²³ Both cases remained in active litigation as of early 2025, with the NOPD declining to comment on pending proceedings.

Super Bowl Security Overhaul

The Caesars Superdome sits roughly a mile from where the attack happened, and it was set to host the Sugar Bowl between Georgia and Notre Dame on the evening of January 1. That game was pushed 24 hours while the stadium was locked down and swept, the security perimeter widened, and additional officers deployed.²⁴

The larger response came ahead of Super Bowl LIX on February 9, 2025, at the same venue. Governor Jeff Landry issued an executive order establishing an “enhanced security zone” over the first seven blocks of Bourbon Street and adjacent streets, giving police authority to search bags and deny entry to anyone who refused. Ice chests and backpack coolers were banned within the zone, a direct response to Jabbar’s concealment of his IEDs in coolers.²⁵

Steel anti-ramming barriers went in around the Superdome and downtown. Roughly 2,000 law enforcement officers were assigned to the event, along with 350 National Guard troops, rooftop snipers, BearCat armored vehicles, and FBI and Secret Service units.²⁶ More than 100 bomb-sniffing dogs worked the stadium, the FAA imposed a flight restriction up to 18,000 feet that banned drones, and the NOPD hired the security firm Teneo, led by former NYPD Commissioner William Bratton, to review safety plans.²⁷

Help for Victims and Families

The Greater New Orleans Foundation, at Mayor LaToya Cantrell’s request, launched the New Year’s Day Tragedy Fund with the Virginia-based Mass Violence Survivors Fund. About 3,000 donations came in from individuals, businesses, and organizations including Ochsner Health, the NFL, and Saints owner Gayle Benson, and the fund ultimately paid out more than $3 million. Of 77 applications screened in February 2025, 66 were approved. The largest payments went to legal heirs of those killed, with graduated amounts to hospitalized victims, those treated and released, and bystanders present during the attack.²⁸

The FBI set up a family assistance center at St. Martin de Porres Catholic Church, offering mental health support, legal and financial assistance, and help applying to Louisiana’s Crime Victims’ Compensation Program.²⁹ Governor Landry honored each of the 14 victims with an individual day of remembrance through January 23, 2025.³⁰

1
PBS NewsHour. New Orleans Police Hold News Conference on Bourbon Street Truck Attack
2
ABC News. FBI Releases Timeline of Suspect Shamsud-Din Jabbar
3
ABC News. Newly Released Images Show IEDs From New Orleans Suspect
4
NBC News. Chemical Used in Explosives Found in Texas Storage Locker Linked to New Orleans Attack
5
FBI. FBI ATF Joint Investigative Update on Bourbon Street Attack
6
FBI. FBI Releases Investigative Update in Bourbon Street Attack
7
BBC. Edward Pettifer Killed in New Orleans Attack
8
Houston Public Media. Who Was Shamsud-Din Jabbar
9
FBI. Investigative Updates on the New Orleans Bourbon Street Attack
10
CBS News. FBI Investigating Bourbon Street Attacker’s Past Trips to New Orleans and Cairo
11
ABC7 NY. New Orleans Attack Vehicle Rented Through Turo App
12
ABC7 NY. Turo CEO Releases Statement on New Orleans and Las Vegas Attacks
13
Texas Public Radio. New Orleans Rampage Suspect Acted as Lone Wolf, FBI Says
14
JURIST. FBI Confirms Lone Wolf Terrorist Responsible for New Orleans Attack
15
House Committee on Homeland Security. Chairmen Green, Pfluger Demand Updated Answers From FBI, DHS on Suspect in New Orleans Terrorist Attack
16
BBC. FBI Finds No Evidence Connecting New Orleans and Las Vegas Attacks
17
NBC News. Malfunctioning Security Bollards Removed From Bourbon Street Prior to New Orleans Attack
18
CNN. New Orleans Attack Security and Politics Infighting
19
ABC News. Police Did Not Anticipate Vehicular Attack in New Orleans
20
Louisiana Illuminator. New Orleans Resilient
21
Fox 8 Live. Victims of Bourbon Street Terror Attack File Suit Against City of New Orleans and Contractors
22
City of New Orleans. Bourbon Street Bollard Assessment and Replacement Project
23
WWNO. More Bourbon Street Truck Attack Victims Sue New Orleans
24
PBS NewsHour. Sugar Bowl Postponed After Deadly Truck Attack in New Orleans
25
WWNO. Landry Designates Bourbon Street Area as Enhanced Security Zone for Super Bowl
26
The New York Times. New Orleans Super Bowl Security
27
WHYY. Super Bowl LIX New Orleans Safety
28
NOLA.com. Families, Survivors of Bourbon Street Attack Receive $3 Million
29
Office for Victims of Crime. Resources and Support for Victims in New Orleans, Louisiana
30
Nebraska Examiner. New Orleans to Evaluate Vulnerabilities After Terrorist Attack