President Biden said Wednesday that federal investigators were looking for links but “thus far, there is nothing to report.” Sources familiar with the probe said it is still in the early stages and no conclusions should be reached at this time, but it appears both suspects had backgrounds in the U.S. military.
In New Orleans, the feds looked into whether the man who plowed into revelers on Bourbon Street had accomplices, but officials said Thursday they found none and that the attacker acted alone.
Law enforcement sources told The Times that what appear to be two homemade pipe bombs with nails were found in blue coolers placed near two eateries on the famed strip. This has led authorities to believe someone other than the driver put them there, the sources said.
Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, drove a rented pickup truck bearing a flag of the Islamic State group onto a sidewalk, going around a police car that was positioned to block vehicular traffic, authorities said.
Police killed Jabbar after he got out of the truck and opened fire on officers, authorities said.
Law enforcement officials told The Times that Jabbar was wearing body armor. Investigators recovered a handgun and an AR-style rifle after the shootout, a law enforcement official said. The official was not authorized to discuss details of the investigation publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
Jabbar joined the Army in 2007, serving on active duty in human resources and information technology and deploying to Afghanistan from 2009 to 2010, the service said. He transferred to the Army Reserve in 2015 and left in 2020 with the rank of staff sergeant.
Biden said Wednesday evening that the FBI found videos that the driver had posted to social media hours before the attack in which he said he was inspired by Islamic State and expressed a desire to kill.
In a video on YouTube, Jabbar said he was born in Beaumont, Texas, and worked in human resources and information technology while in the Army. He described himself as a property manager and real estate agent.
The FBI is also probing the explosion of fuel canisters and firework mortars packed into the bed of a Cybertruck outside President-elect Donald Trump’s property near the iconic Las Vegas Strip that killed the driver and left seven bystanders with minor injuries, officials said.
At a press briefing Wednesday evening, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Sheriff Kevin McMahill said the truck had been rented in Colorado. An electronic license plate reader recorded the Cybertruck arriving in Las Vegas at about 7:30 a.m. Wednesday, McMahill said. The truck traveled up and down the Strip for about an hour before pulling into the covered driveway outside the Trump Hotel, and exploded about 15 seconds later, McMahill said.
McMahill said the department had confirmed the name of the person who rented the Cybertruck, but did not say whether that person was the driver killed in the explosion. The driver’s name would not be released until authorities had “a 100 percent identification,” he said.
Law enforcement sources told The Times the vehicle was caught on surveillance camera driving past the valet section of Trump Tower an hour prior to the incident and returning; stopping at the front doors before exploding. The video shows what looks like fireworks going off during the fire, the sources said. They trying to determine if the deceased male driver had a military background.
The Associated Press identified him as Matthew Livelsberger. Livelsberger was a member of the Army’s elite Green Berets, a special forces unit and guerrilla warfare experts, according to an Army statement.
Investigators have not yet determined how the fireworks and gas and camping fuel canisters in the back of the vehicle were ignited, McMahill said.
McMahill said investigators are looking into whether the driver had deliberately targeted one of Trump’s properties using a Tesla vehicle. Elon Musk, Tesla’s chief executive, is a close advisor to the president-elect.
The Cybertruck involved in the Las Vegas incident and the Ford pickup truck used in the New Orleans attack were both rented through Turo, a platform where people can rent cars directly from vehicle owners.
A company spokesman said Turo is working with law enforcement, but that it does not believe that either renter “had a criminal background that would have identified them as a security threat.”
©2025 Los Angeles Times, Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
