Investigators are looking for answers in New Orleans and Las Vegas. On the Gulf Coast, they identified an attacker who was a veteran from Texas. In Nevada, the question is what made a Tesla Cybertruck explode outside a Trump hotel. I'm Leila Faldid. That's Stephen Skeep and this is Up First from NPR News.

What do police know about the suspect in the attack that killed 15 people on Bourbon Street? The ISIS flag was found in his vehicle. President Biden also said he was inspired by ISIS. So what's that mean? FBI investigators include counterterrorism experts and bomb techs. And the explosion outside the Vegas hotel involves two big brand names connected by politics. It's a Tesla trucking. We know that Elon Musk is working with President-elect Trump and it's the Trump Tower. Stay with us. We've got the news you need to start your day.

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We'll get up to date now on two incidents in two entertainment districts, an attack in New Orleans and an explosion in Las Vegas. The Vegas incident involved a Tesla Cybertruck that exploded outside a Trump hotel, but first we hear from New Orleans, where a pickup plowed into a crowd on Bourbon Street.

Investigators have learned a little more over the past 24 hours. Let's go to Drew Hawkins once again of Gulf States newsroom. He's in New Orleans. Welcome back, Drew. Good morning, Steve. How does this event look after a day since you last spoke with us here?

Yeah, so at this point investigators say that the driver crashed through police barricades, officers opened fire, the driver fired back, two officers were injured before the driver was shot and killed. The FBI has called it an act of terrorism by an American citizen, and we know that he had an ISIS flag on his truck. Here's President Biden talking about it last night. The FBI also reported to me that mere hours before the attack,

He posted videos on social media indicating that it's inspired by ISIS, especially the desire to kill, desire to kill.

Investigators say that they believe the suspect, Shamsadeem Jabbar, may not have acted alone as well. Biden said law enforcement is looking for possible co-conspirators or associations, and officials are urging people who might know anything to come forward, while at this point, Bourbon Street and most of the French Quarter remains off limits. And also yesterday's sugar bowl game between Notre Dame and Georgia was postponed until this afternoon.

I'm just dwelling on the details you give us there. Possible co-conspirators, but we don't really know. The president says inspired by ISIS, which sounds more like an ideological connection, but of course we don't know that and we'll be getting in a moment to more details about the individual. What are city officials saying about how the driver got past police though?

Yeah, so there were automatic bollards installed on Bourbon Street more than a decade ago. So these are these barriers that go up and down automatically to block off the streets. But they haven't worked in quite some time. So instead, what New Orleans police did was they parked police cruisers at the intersection to prevent traffic from getting in.

But the suspect simply drove around the police cruiser. He went up onto the sidewalk and then began speeding down the road and started running into people in the crowded streets. The city was actually in the process of getting those bollards fixed ahead of the big Super Bowl that's set to be held here. But that process obviously wasn't complete. And critics have asked why these bollards have taken so long to be repaired in an area that has such heavy tourist and foot traffic.

That question has got to be just one part of what's affecting the mood in New Orleans right now. Yeah, it's a somber mood. I think there's also some anger that this happened. The witness has described a chaotic tragic scene with people out celebrating New Year's Eve that were suddenly plunged into panic and devastation. Like I mentioned, there's also the sugar bowl. It's a really big deal.

But many residents and visitors right now are still grappling with shock and grief as the city tries to recover. And like I said, there's also a frustration with the city of New Orleans, who some people feel just didn't do enough to keep people safe. Tell me a little bit about the victims.

Yeah, we know that among the 15 people who were killed, one was Tiger Beck. He's described as a standout athlete from Lafayette, Louisiana, and a Mississippi teenager, Nikhira Dado. Injuries span a wide range. We've learned about two 20-year-old women from Fort Meyer, Florida, who were hurt and are currently hospitalized. But the thing right now is that officials say they're waiting to notify families before they can release the names of all the victims.

Okay, Drew Hawkins with Gulf States Newsroom in New Orleans. Thanks so much for your insights. Thanks, Steve. Now, the suspect was a native of Texas. Champs-a-Dinjavar was from the Houston area and drove a rented pickup to New Orleans.

So far as we know, his 42 years were filled with mostly ordinary life events. Lauren McGahy, with the Texas Newsroom, has been working to learn more about him either, Lauren. Good morning. So, what have you found out about this man's life up until the moment when he attacked in New Orleans?

Sure, well, we know that he started a handful of Realty Ventures in Texas, and then he also had a Realtors license here. But state business records also show that two of his ventures recently went to funk just in the last few years. He also went through divorce proceedings here about five years ago. That's according to court records. And those show that he and his ex-wife were fighting over money and that they had a child together. He posted a YouTube video for one of these businesses, which has now been taken down.

But in the video, Jabbar said he was born and raised in Beaumont, Texas, and spent time in the military. This underlined some of the frustrations at moments like this. You can see this person's difficulty in life, shortage of money, divorce, business failures. But of course, these are things that happened to lots of people who do not respond in this way. What about his military service?

U.S. Army spokesman said that Jabbar served from 2007 to 2015 and then switched to the reserves. He was a human resources and IT specialist, so he mostly worked in those roles. But he also did have one overseas deployment to Afghanistan for about a year in 2009.

And when he left service, he held the rank of staff sergeant. We were also able to speak to a U.S. official, not able to speak on the record, who told NPR's Tom Bowman that Jabbar was honorably discharged, but that he did have disciplinary problems while in the military. And in that YouTube video I mentioned, Jabbar said his time in the military taught him to, quote, take everything seriously, dotting eyes and crossing T's to make sure that things go off without a hitch.

We were able to confirm that after the Army, Jabbar went to school at Georgia State University in Atlanta and graduated with a degree in computer information systems. And his resume also included a brief stint at the consulting firm Deloitte. And he ended up living where? So we were able to trace Jabbar's last known address to a neighborhood in Northwest Houston. Our reporters from Houston Public Media said by Wednesday afternoon, the place was just completely swarming with police investigating the attack.

including FBI agents. The house he supposedly lived in was a small white kind of portable style home with a big black gate. And there were a lot of cars outside the home, but our reporters were unable to speak with anyone inside. They did talk to some of Jabbar's neighbors. This is Francois Venegas, who has lived in the area for a couple of years. This is not a Muslim community. It's not a problem.

He said it's a Muslim community and they don't generally have any problems there. Venegas said he's seen Jabar around the neighborhood and that they've waved at each other but that he didn't know him well. And just one more thing regarding the car that Jabar was driving, Dan Patrick, the Lieutenant Governor of Texas, said that Jabar rented it on December 30th and was seen driving around Houston in it before the attack. Where's the investigation going now?

The FBI says it deployed specialty teams to the neighborhood where Jabbar lived. That's bomb technicians, counter-terrorism investigators, crisis negotiators. But the Bureau also asked people to just avoid the area. They even put some temporary flight restriction into place. And it indicated search warrants were being executed in multiple states. Lauren McGahy of the Texas Newsroom bringing us results of a team of reporters working on this. Thanks so much. You're welcome.

Okay, now investigators are looking for any possible connections between that attack in New Orleans and the New Year's Day explosion of a Tesla cyber truck in front of a Trump hotel in Las Vegas. Yeah, a joint terrorism task force of FBI agents and local law enforcement is investigating that blast, which killed the driver and injured at least seven other people. NPR's Frank Langford is covering this story. Hi there, Frank. Hey, good morning, Steve. Can you work us through the best understanding of what happened?

Yeah, it was Las Vegas Metropolitan Police. They say this cyber truck pulled up to the valet parking area of the Trump International Hotel. This was somewhere around 840 yesterday. Sat there for maybe 15, 20 seconds. Smoke starts to come out of the truck. Then these fireworks, you can see this in the video. They're shooting out of the truck and then the truck is sort of engulfed in flames. The driver was killed. And as mentioned, seven people nearby, they suffered minor injuries.

What do police know about the man who was in that vehicle, the person who was in that vehicle?

Well, they know who rented the truck, but I'm not sure that they've not identified that person yet, at least not publicly. The truck was rented in Colorado, and what they want to make sure of, I think, is that the renter and the driver are the same person. Then in terms of a motive, they haven't said anything at all. But yesterday at this news conference, Sheriff Kevin McMahill, he said there's obviously a line of inquiry here, and this is how he put it last night. Well, I mean, it's a Tesla truck, and we know that Elon Musk is working

with President-elect Trump, and it's the Trump Tower, so there's obviously things to be concerned about there, and that's something we continue to look at. So he's identifying dots, not connecting the dots, which seems prudent at this early stage. Do investigators know what made the truck explode?

Yeah, they showed a video yesterday of the burned out bed of the truck and you could see gasoline canisters. There were camp fuel canisters and large fireworks mortars, which explains those fireworks that burst out of the car. But police aren't not sure exactly how it was ignited. It's also an interesting observation. They said the bed of the truck was very sturdy and so it partially contained the blast. And that's why the windows of the lobby of the Trump hotel weren't actually damaged.

Interesting. Now, is there anything concrete to connect this to the incident in New Orleans?

Now, they're just only superficial similarities at the moment. You know, these are apparent attacks, both by trucks, same day, these tourist cities, as you mentioned. Both vehicles were rented on the same app called Turo, and the sheriff in Las Vegas called it another coincident worth investigating. And once I think they have the identity of the cyber truck driver, they'll see if there's any connection with the person in New Orleans.

The sheriff also said there was no ISIS flag seen in the cyber truck, which we saw in New Orleans, and Jeremy Schwartz, he's the acting special agent in charge of the FBI in Las Vegas, he added this. We believe this is an isolated incident. We do not believe that there's a bunch of folks out there supporting this or helping this, and we don't believe that there's any other danger to the community right now. One other thing, what does Elon Musk say?

Yes, Steve, he praised the apparent sturdiness of the truck. Writing on Acts, he said this. The evil knuckleheads picked the wrong vehicle for a terrorist attack. Now, a reminder, of course, authorities have not designated this as a terrorist attack yet. But they did say that Tesla was helpful in the investigation. Police were able to track the vehicle from its stops at Tesla charging stations. And Tesla also supplied videos from those stops. OK, and PR is Frank Langford. Thanks so much. Good to talk, Steve.

And that's up first for this Thursday, January 2nd, 2025. I'm Stephen Skeep. And I'm Leila Faldel. There's an easy way to stay connected to news and podcasts from the NPR network, the NPR app. Hear community coverage from your local station stories from around the world and podcast suggestions based on what you like. Download the NPR app in your app store.

Today's up first was edited by Susanna Capiluto, Gigi Dubon, Jan Johnson, and Alice Wolfley. It was produced by Katie Klein, Nia Dumas, and Julie Deppenbrock. Engineering support comes from Nisha Heines, our technical director is Carly Strange. Join us tomorrow.

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