NEW ORLEANS – The FBI has released video — some of it obtained from terrorist Shamsud-Bin Jabbar — that shows him in the French Quarter in the hours before he killed 14 people and injured dozens more, and his view as he rode a bicycle through the historic district exactly two months earlier.

The footage comes from French Quarter surveillance cameras and scenes Jabbar recorded on Meta glasses in October, during what the FBI said was the first of two trips he took to New Orleans before his early New Year’s Day massacre. 

Authorities recovered three homemade bombs they said Jabbar placed in small coolers, including two that he’s seen on video placing on Bourbon Street. One of the explosive devices was found in the pickup truck he drove after he sped through a crowd of pedestrians and was killed in a shootout with police.

Also recovered from the truck was what the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms considers a remote detonation device. Jabbar, a 42-year-old IT professional and U.S. Army veteran from Texas, could have used it to set off the bombs had New Orleans police not responded soon enough, ATF Special Agent in Charge Joshua Jackson said during a news conference Sunday.  

The FBI compiled all of the footage it shared into a single video that’s nearly four minutes long. The timestamps that follow detail the content of the segments:  

0:00 – Jabbar recorded footage on Meta eyeglasses Oct. 31 during his bike ride in the French Quarter and Canal Street. The FBI said Jabbar was wearing Meta glasses early Wednesday, but there is no indication he used them to record or live stream his attack. 

1:36 – Jabbar recorded himself wearing Meta glasses looking into a mirror at a home investigators say he rented during his October trip to New Orleans.   

1:41 – French Quarter surveillance video recorded at 1:53 a.m. Wednesday shows Jabbar with a blue cooler that investigators said had an improvised bomb inside. The FBI said Jabbar left it at the intersection of Bourbon and St. Peter streets, and it was found a block away at Orleans Street after “multiple unknowing Bourbon Street visitors grabbed the cooler’s handle and moved it.”

2:20 – At approximately 2:20 a.m., surveillance footage shows Jabbar leaving the second explosive device inside a “bucket-style” cooler at Bourbon and Toulouse streets. The video shows him standing next to a trash can receptacle as visitors walk and dance around him. 

At one point, Jabbar is seen waving his hand while looking down Bourbon Street, then he walks away from the cooler. Investigators did not address who or what Jabbar might have been waving to or why during Sunday’s news conference. 

2:42 – A still image from surveillance video clearly shows Jabbar walking down Governor Nicholls Street. The FBI said he was returning to his truck to pick up the second cooler. The brown long coat he is seen wearing was recovered from the truck at the scene of the deadly attack.   

3:00 – Jabbar is seen on surveillance video walking up and down Governor Nicholls Street. 

Federal investigators provided an update on their continuing investigation Sunday, saying they still believe Jabbar acted alone. However, they continue to look into trips they say Jabbar took to Egypt and Canada over the summer. He also traveled to the Atlanta and Tampa, Florida, areas. 

Lyonel Myrthil, the FBI’s special agent in charge of its New Orleans office, said investigators are trying to determine who Jabbar might have come into contact with during his travels.

Mayor LaToya Cantrell said she has asked the Biden administration to provide an expert who can assess the city’s terrorism vulnerabilities ahead of the Super Bowl, which takes place Feb. 9 at the Superdome, and Mardi Gras. 

Carnival season officially begins Monday and culminates on Fat Tuesday, March 4.

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This one just feels different.

It’s the best way I can summarize what’s going through my head and heart after Wednesday’s early morning terror attack on Bourbon Street where at least 14 people were killed, 37 more were injured and an untold number of witnesses were likely forever traumatized. That’s to speak nothing of the indelible mark left on the family and loved ones of the victims.

After working and living in New Orleans for 20 years now, I’ve been through my share of tragic events. Hurricane Katrina, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, too many mass shootings and other horrendous acts of violence to count.

But this one feels different.

To me, it’s like a new kind of numbness. I can’t decide whether I’m emotionally callused or frustrated to the point of hopelessness. Fear hasn’t really entered my mind, and I’m honestly a little worried about that.

Toby Lefort, a New Orleans native and bartender at Bourbon Pub, explained it well when he shared his thoughts Thursday afternoon with Illuminator reporter Wes Muller. Lefort’s workplace is just a block from where Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a 42-year-old Texas native, left a homemade bomb inside an ice chest. The device was not detonated, as Jabbar died in a shootout with police further up Bourbon Street, adding to the carnage.

“The city that we all love is devastated — again,” Lefort said. “It’s true that New Orleans is a very resilient place, but how long do we have to keep being resilient?”

Good question. 

Words such as “resiliency” and “recovery” already elicit groans and eye rolls here because we so frequently have to deal with setbacks. What’s more discouraging is that so many of these traumatic events were preventable or the result of extreme indifference.

This one feels different.

For one thing, there’s the apparent negligence from New Orleans officials who failed to take backup measures after they removed portable steel posts, or bollards, on Bourbon Street. The barriers are designed to deter vehicles but allow pedestrian access. 

It’s baffling why the timeline to install new bollards didn’t require them to be in place before the end of the year, instead of before Super Bowl LIX in February.  

Dozens of archers, metal barrier sheets, could have been deployed in place of the bollards, but they sat stacked together on a city lot untouched until Thursday when they were moved to the French Quarter. Worse yet, New Orleans Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick, who was hired in November 2023, said she was unaware the city even had archers on hand. 

But the police chief and Mayor LaToya Cantrell certainly knew, or should have known, that streets in the heart of the city’s tourism district were left vulnerable. It also shouldn’t have escaped the eye of Louisiana State Police, which now has a New Orleans-based troop to supplement the NOPD. We’re told some 400 law enforcement personnel from various agencies were in the French Quarter for New Year’s Eve.

Adding to my mood of disheartened disgust is the response so far from political leaders to the terror attack. All officials involved should be given some degree of forbearance given the unprecedented nature of the event.

But when U.S. Sen. John Kennedy used Thursday’s news conference to launch zingers at a journalist, it’s clear that his focus wasn’t on the victims or people in the community who wanted assurance their safety was his priority. Instead, Kennedy chose instead to provide more of his typical, faux-yokel idioms, at one point man-spreading his way to the podium to displace an FBI special agent at the microphone. 

It was also poor timing for Attorney General Liz Murrill to declare on social media late Wednesday that, “In Louisiana we have the death penalty and we will carry it out!” Her post rang hollow just hours later when the FBI declared Jabbar acted alone in planning and carrying out his attack.

There’s no question that Gov. Jeff Landry has taken the helm of the official response to the terror attack. That’s probably a good thing, given Cantrell’s struggles with an ongoing federal investigation and the city’s mishandling of street security.

But the governor’s boosterism for the Sugar Bowl, the upcoming Super Bowl and his desire for a quick return to business as usual in New Orleans comes off as dismissive of legitimate concerns about public safety. At best, it was a questionable decision for Landry to post a photo of himself and his wife outside an expensive Central Business District restaurant less than 24 hours after Jabbar went on his killing spree a half-mile away.

“Proud to be a part of this incredibly resilient city,” the governor wrote on X.

There’s that word again.

Some might consider my commentary the work of a disgruntled journalist taking potshots. While I can’t take off that reporter’s hat, these feelings come more from my standing as a New Orleans resident who’s seen far more tragic events unfold than I want to recall.

But this one feels different, and I hope our leaders would realize that and respond appropriately.