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Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said the man, "hell-bent on carnage", was trying to run over as many people as he could in the city's famous French Quarter, an area that was packed with people celebrating the start of 2025.
The FBI is investigating the incident as an act of terrorism. The attacker as Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a 42-year-old "US citizen from Texas". Officials said he might not have been acting alone. "An ISIS flag was located in the vehicle, and the FBI is working to determine the subject's potential associations and affiliations with terrorist organizations," the FBI said in a statement. He served more than 10 years in the military as a human resource specialist and an IT specialist, according to the Pentagon, which said Jabbar deployed to Afghanistan from 2009 to 2010.
In a video posted on YouTube four years ago, Jabbar -- speaking with a southern US accent -- boasted of his skills as a "fierce negotiator" as he advertised his property management services to potential clients. Criminal records reported by the New York Times show that Jabbar had two previous charges for minor offenses -- one in 2002 for theft and another in 2005 for driving with an invalid license. Jabbar was twice-married, according to the newspaper, with his second marriage ending in divorce in 2022, when he detailed experiencing financial problems in an email to his wife's lawyer. "I cannot afford the house payment," he reportedly wrote, adding that his real estate company had lost more than $28,000 in the previous year, and that he had taken on thousands in credit card debt to pay for lawyers.
President Joe Biden said, "There is no justification for violence of any kind, and we will not tolerate any attack on any of our nation's communities,."
President-elect Donald Trump linked the attack to illegal immigration. "When I said that the criminals coming in are far worse than the criminals we have in the country... it turned out to be true," Trump posted on social media. While the FBI has said that violent crime has sharply come down across the US, Mr Trump said the nation's crime rate "is at a level that nobody has ever seen."
Witnesses described terrifying scenes of "insanity" that they likened to being in a "war zone". Zion Parsons told CNN, "It was just like a movie. That's the only way I can explain it." He said the truck threw bodies in the air in its wake. "There were bodies and blood and all the trash," he said, describing scenes of victims crying on the ground in the fetal position after the truck had passed.
The incident came amid 100 per cent staffing, with an additional 300 officers assisting from partner law enforcement agencies. It came on a day the French Quarter listed special deals for New Year's, including LGBTQ parties and a drag cabaret nearby where the incident took place. It also came shortly before the city hosts a major football game, known as the Sugar Bowl, featuring teams from the University of Georgia and Notre Dame.
International condemnation poured with French President Emmanuel Macron said his thoughts are with the families of the victims and the injured. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky posted on X, "We trust that those responsible for this terrible act will be brought to justice. Violence, terrorism, and any threats to human life have no place in our world and must not be tolerated. Our deepest condolences to the families of the victims... Ukraine stands with the American people and denounces violence."
In a separate incident, at least one person was killed and seven wounded when a Tesla Cybertruck exploded outside a hotel belonging to US President-elect Donald Trump in Las Vegas, police said Wednesday. US President Joe Biden said authorities were investigating any links between the Las Vegas explosion and the New Orleans attack.
The FBI and local law enforcement said they believed the Tesla blast was an isolated incident. However, Tesla and SpaceX chief Elon Musk alleged a connection between the Las Vegas and New Orleans attacks. "Appears likely to be an act of terrorism. Both this Cybertruck and the F-150 suicide bomb in New Orleans were rented from Turo. Perhaps they are linked in some way," Musk wrote on X.