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New Orleans revelers narrowly escape path of speeding truck in ‘tactic of choice among terrorists’: expert

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Video shows truck terror attack suspect speeding down Bourbon Street

New Orleans truck attack suspect Shamsud-Din Jabbar is caught on camera speeding down Bourbon Street in the early morning hours of New Year’s Day in New Orleans, as several people narrowly escape being hit. (Credit: Krystal on Bourbon Street)

NEW ORLEANS – Surveillance footage from Bourbon Street shared with Fox News Digital shows terror suspect Shamsud-Din Jabbar speeding his electric Ford F-150 Lightning pickup truck toward a crowd of New Year’s revelers, who narrowly escapes the fast-moving vehicle, around 3:15 a.m. on Jan. 1.

Authorities fatally shot Jabbar after he drove his vehicle through the crowd, killing 14 people and opening fire on police in what officials described as a terrorist attack.

“A 500-pound vehicle going at a high rate of speed in an urban area is utterly devastating. And it’s very clear the trend is that this is becoming — this tactic of choice among terrorists globally, because recently we’ve seen a proliferation of these,” Paul Mauro, Fox News contributor and former NYPD inspector, told Fox News Digital. 

Mauro added that police departments across the nation have shifted their standard operating procedures because “it’s no longer enough to wait for the feds to do their counterterrorism.”

NEW ORLEANS ATTACK COULD EMBOLDEN ISIS TO RADICALIZE OTHER AMERICANS, EXPERTS SAY

Authorities patrol Bourbon Street as it is reopened in New Orleans on Thursday. Multiple people were killed after a terrorist drove an electric pickup truck into a crowd of New Year’s revelers early Thursday on Bourbon Street. (Kat Ramirez for Fox News Digital)

Mauro added that “electric vehicles in general are so quiet” that Jabbar may have made the conscious decision to rent an electric vehicle for the purpose of taking more victims by surprise.

A manager at Krystal, a fast-food restaurant on Bourbon Street, shared the surveillance video with Fox Digital, and said New Year’s celebrations had been going relatively smoothly in the French Quarter compared to prior years. Visitors were having fun, but not being overly rambunctious, he recalled.

NEW ORLEANS TRUCK ATTACK SUSPECT INSPIRED BY ISLAMIC STATE TERRORIST GROUP

Shamsud-Din Jabbar is seen walking near Bourbon Street in New Orleans in surveillance video on Dec. 31. (FBI)

Multiple business employees located near the entrance of Bourbon Street told Fox News Digital that authorities installed temporary barriers to block traffic at certain street entrances in the French Quarter around Christmastime as the city planned to repair and upgrade its permanent barriers. 

NEW ORLEANS ATTACK: INVESTIGATION CONTINUES, AS FBI SAYS NO OTHER SUSPECTS INVOLVED

Barricades are seen on Bourbon Street following the street’s reopening in New Orleans on Thursday. (Kat Ramirez for Fox News Digital)

However, the barrier situated at the intersection of Canal and Bourbon streets was not upright on New Year’s Eve, meaning vehicles could drive over the flattened barricade and onto Bourbon Street from Canal Street. A video shows Jabbar driving the rented pickup truck off Canal Street and around a police vehicle blockade at the entrance of Bourbon Street before plowing into revelers.

“We do have to accept the fact that they made mistakes.”

— Paul Mauro

“The lesson is, even if you take prophylactic steps, you can’t secure a very large event 100%, and we just have to accept that. Now, that said … we do have to accept the fact that they made mistakes,” Mauro said. “You have to ask yourselves: If you have New Orleans New Year’s — which I actually have been to, and it is a zoo, you get tons of people — then you have the Sugar Bowl, then you have the Super Bowl, then you have Mardis Gras, who made the decision to decide to remove the barriers that they had for upgrading?”

Watch:

Video

Kevin Scott, a charcoal chef at the Bourbon Street restaurant Felix’s, told Fox News Digital that he was working on New Year’s Eve before the attack and left shortly before Jabbar drove his truck into revelers. Scott described the crowd as similar to the crowd he might see on Mardi Gras.

The next day, he heard several eyewitness accounts from people who said “bodies were everywhere” and people were “screaming and hollering and just running for their lives.”

“It’s a tragedy in New Orleans.”

— Kevin Scott

“Coming into the French Quarter, it’s very different now. … It feels different,” Scott said, adding that he feels “very surprised” with the number of people who were back on Bourbon Street on Thursday afternoon after officials reopened the area.

Kevin Scott, a charcoal chef at the Bourbon Street restaurant Felix’s, told Fox News Digital that he was working on New Year’s Eve before the attack and that he left shortly before the Jabbar drove his truck into the crowd of revelers. (Fox News Digital)

Scott broke down while saying his heart goes out to the families of the victims.

 “I’m just wishing we can all come together and just…be a better place, a better world,” he said.

NEW ORLEANS TERROR SUSPECT’S BROTHER SAYS ATTACK IS SIGN OF ‘RADICALIZATION’: REPORT

A man kneels at a memorial for those killed in the New Year’s Day attack on Bourbon Street following the street’s reopening in New Orleans, Thursday. (Kat Ramirez for Fox News Digital)

FBI Deputy Assistant Director Christopher Raia said Thursday that authorities believe Jabbar was motivated by ISIS and acted alone. Officials also located two improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in different locations in the French Quarter after the terrorist attack. They were placed in coolers.

WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT VICTIMS OF NEW ORLEANS TERRORIST ATTACK

Before his rampage in New Orleans, Jabbar posted several videos on Facebook declaring his support for the Islamic State (ISIS), the FBI said at a news conference Thursday.

Shamsud Din-Jabbar is pictured in an undated photograph released by the FBI after he attacked New Orleans’ Bourbon Street with a pickup truck and died in a shootout with responding officers. (FBI)

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“In the first video, Jabbar explains he only planned to harm his family and friends, but was concerned the news headlines would not focus on the ‘war between the believers and the disbelievers,'” Raia said. 

Fox News Digital’s Christina Coulter and Louis Casiano contributed to this report.

Audrey Conklin is a digital reporter for Fox News Digital and FOX Business. Email tips to audrey.conklin@fox.com or on Twitter at @audpants.

Related Topics

  • US Crime
  • Crime
  • New Orleans
  • Louisiana
  • Terrorism
  • Homicide
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