Louisiana
VIDEO: FBI shares footage showing New Orleans terrorist in French Quarter before deadly rampage • Louisiana Illuminator
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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Louisiana
After redistricting battles, Southern gathers for Juneteenth celebration: ‘Continue the fight’
Hundreds of community members, alumni and students gathered Thursday to observe Juneteenth on the Southern University campus in Baton Rouge.
The theme of the festivities was “celebrating freedom through culture and community,” but weeks after Louisiana’s bitter redistricting battles, the speakers Thursday morning had one message driving their remarks: Get out and vote.
“Freedom does not come in on the wheels of inevitability,” Louisiana Supreme Court Associate Justice John Michael Guidry said to the crowd. “But it takes the prodigious work and the tireless efforts of those who are willing to continue the fight.”
Great Beginnings summer camper Myni, 4, gets a hello kitty face painting during Southern’s Juneteenth celebration on Thursday, June 18, 2026 in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Staff photo by Michael Johnson
The speech kicked off a day of discussions and cultural events centered on the holiday of Juneteenth, which commemorates June 19, 1865, when Union Gen. Gordon Granger brought news of emancipation to enslaved people in Texas more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation was issued.
Speakers at Southern emphasized the need for protection of hard-won rights for Black Americans in the context of redistricting. The sentiments followed a contentious state legislative session that ended with the elimination of one of Louisiana’s two majority-Black congressional districts after the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Louisiana v. Callais.
“That Voting Rights Act is under attack,” Guidry said. “There’s voter intimidation, there’s voter suppression, there are voter ID laws and all types of laws and legal decisions that are trying to deny us our right to vote, and we are the ones who have to go forward and litigate these issues.”
The day opened with a libation ceremony and a rendition of “Lift Every Voice and Sing” by Southern University student Claire Floyd.
Southern University alumnus Jeanet Cazenave said she felt it was important to celebrate Juneteenth on campus as not only a relative of the first dean of Southern University but also a descendant of the GU272, a group of enslaved individuals who were sold to plantations in Louisiana in 1838 by Jesuit priests to pay the debts of what is now Georgetown University in Washington, D.C.
Juneteenth “means everything,” Cazenave said. “It means the past, the present and the future.”
Louisiana
Gov. Landry declares state of emergency after flooding, severe weather across Louisiana
BATON ROUGE, La. (KLFY) — Governor Landry has officially declared Louisiana under state of emergency.
The state emergency declaration covers Avoyelles, Lafourche, Pointe Coupee, St. Landry, St. Tammany and Terrebonne parishes.
The declaration was issued Thursday following the impacts of Tropical Storm Arthur, which brough rainfall and strong storms to parts of the state on June 17 and 18.
Officials said the National Weather Service has confirmed three tornadoes tied to the storm system.
Officials also reported record or near-record rainfall totals in Avoyelles and Pointe Coupee parishes over a 12-hour period.
The order allows the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness to coordinate resources and provide assistance to local governments if needed.
Certain state purchasing and bidding requirements have been temporarily suspended to speed up emergency response efforts.
The declaration took effect immediately and will remain in place through July 18 unless it is lifted or extended.
State officials are urging residents to stay weather aware, avoid flooded roadways and follow guidance from local emergency managers.
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