Just hours before he rammed a pickup truck through a New Orleans street jammed with New Year’s Eve revellers, the perpetrator’s social media posts indicated he was inspired by the terrorist organisation Islamic State, U.S. President Joe Biden said.
Biden, citing FBI information, told reporters that the attacker “posted videos on social media indicating that he was inspired by ISIS, expressing the desire to kill.”
Biden made his remarks to the press on Wednesday following the car ramming attack in New Orleans early on New Year’s Day that killed at least 15 and wounded dozens.
Biden referred to the Islamic State as ISIS, but it is also called IS, and in the Middle East and many other countries it is known as Daesh.
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New Orleans police chief Anne Kirkpatrick said that the driver “was trying to run over as many people as he possibly could.”
She later added, “He was hellbent on creating the carnage and the damage that he did.” Police said the incident occurred at 3:15 am (0915 GMT) in an area of the city known for attracting tens of thousands of visitors during major events.
The perpetrator allegedly engaged in a gunfight with officers, injuring two of them, before being killed in the confrontation.
The suspect has been identified as 42-year-old US-born Shamsud-Din J from Texas, the FBI said, with the incident being treated as an “act of terrorism.”
The outgoing U.S. president stressed that the investigation showed that the perpetrator was a U.S. citizen.
“The FBI has reported to me that the killer was an American citizen, born in Texas,” Biden told reporters.
“He served in the United States army on active duty for many years. He also served in the army reserve until a few years ago,” he added.
Biden also repeated investigators’ findings that potential explosive devices were found in the pick-up truck, which the man drove into the crowd in New Orleans on New Year’s morning, as well as outside the vehicle.
An Islamic State flag was also found in the vehicle, Biden said, citing the FBI.
Hours after the devastating attack, it remains unclear whether the perpetrator, who was killed after his deadly rampage, had accomplices, US media reported on Wednesday.
Investigators are examining surveillance footage, according to several media outlets, showing a suspicious group of four people.
Initially, it was suspected that they might have placed explosive devices in the affected neighbourhood.
However, shortly afterwards, they were reportedly ruled out as suspects.
Earlier, FBI investigator Alethea Duncan said that they did not believe the driver “was solely responsible”.
U.S. security authorities are investigating whether the explosion of a Tesla Cybertruck outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas might have been a terrorist attack, FBI lead agent Jeremy Schwartz said on Wednesday at a news conference.
The explosion killed the Cybertruck’s driver and slightly injured seven, the Las Vegas police said.
Schwartz did not provide details about the person killed in the explosion.
Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department (LVMPD) Sheriff Kevin McMahill told reporters at a separate news conference that authorities do know the name of the person who rented the truck and he acknowledged that a name is floating around social media, but would not comment further.
He said it is important that next of kin be notified and that “we have a 100 per cent identification.”
He did say that the truck was rented in Colorado and arrived in Las Vegas around 7:30 am (1550 GMT) on Wednesday and drove up and down Las Vegas Boulevard before then driving to the hotel.
The vehicle stopped directly in front of the glass entrance doors of the luxurious building on Wednesday morning and exploded about 20 seconds after stopping, McMahill said.
His office has not yet determined what triggered the explosion, as the vehicle has not yet been processed.
He showed surveillance footage showing smoke emanating from the vehicle, which culminated in a powerful detonation.
Later, additional drone footage captured the aftermath.
The images revealed the charred remnants of several petrol canisters and fireworks.
The electric vehicle was completely destroyed by the fire.
The vehicle involved in the Trump hotel incident had been rented through the same rental website used by the New Orleans attacker, who drove a pick-up truck into a crowd celebrating on New Year’s morning, killing 15 people, McMahill said.
A potential connection to the explosion in Las Vegas, which occurred only a few hours later, is being examined, the sheriff said.
“We are not ruling anything out.” There are currently no indications of a connection to the Islamic State (IS) terrorist organization, as had been suggested in New Orleans.
“There was no overt ISIS flag as was seen in New Orleans,” McMahill said, but stressed that the investigation is looking at all angles.
McMahill said there is no further threat to the community and his office believes any danger to the public from this attack is over.
