Federal officials have released new details about the short-term rental fire that Bourbon Street terrorist Shamsud-Din Jabbar set shortly before he 14 people killed during a New Year’s celebration in New Orleans.
In a statement released Sunday, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) said its National Response Team has completed its investigation into the Mandeville Street home that Jabbar was renting. They determined that Jabbar had started a fire in the house around 12:15 p.m., about four hours before the home attack. French Quarter.
“Jabbar lit the fire with open flame (matches) just before he left,” the ATF explained. “The fire started in the linen closet next to the washer and dryer. This is an enclosed area of the hallway that leads to other rooms of the home.”
The attacker also placed accelerators in other rooms, which the ATF said were intended to “destroy evidence of his crimes.” But the agency noted that the fire eventually burned itself out.
WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT THE VICTIMS OF THE NEW ORLEANS TERRORIST ATTACK
Federal officials have released new details about evidence recovered from Shamsud-Din Jabbar’s short-term rental, which he rented on Bourbon Street shortly before the attack. (Fox News digital)
“We can confirm that the fire was still growing when the Nest thermostat switched from heating mode to cooling mode as the temperature in the home continued to rise,” the ATF said.
“Eventually the fire extinguished itself as the oxygen and fuel in this enclosed part of the home ran out and there was no connection to the accelerators placed in the other rooms.”
Around 5:18 a.m. – an hour after the Bourbon Street attack and after Jabbar died – a neighbor alerted 911 to the smell of smoke near the home.
“The New Orleans Fire Department responded and extinguished the smoldering fire and observed evidence inside the residence, prompting them to alert law enforcement,” the statement said. “ATF and FBI have secured the location at this point.”
The FBI previously said the smoldering fire allowed agents to recover evidence from the rental home, including “precursors to bomb-making materials and a privately made device believed to be a silencer for a rifle.”
In its announcement Sunday, the ATF said it discovered that Jabbar purchased one of the guns used in the attack from a person in Texas on Nov. 19. The seller told the ATF that he did not know Jabbar personally and was unaware of his radical beliefs. .
Officers also found evidence of RDX, or cyclotrimethylenetrinitramine, an explosive at the rental home. But officials noted that Jabbar had made a crucial misstep by selecting explosive material designed to be detonated by a detonator, and that using an electric match to detonate the explosives was a sign of inexperience.
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The FBI has released surveillance photos apparently showing Shamsud-Din Jabbar an hour before he drove a truck down Bourbon Street in New Orleans on January 1, 2025. (Federal Investigation Agency via AP)
“Jabbar used explosive material better suited for a detonator, but he did not have access to it, so he used an electric match to detonate the explosives,” the agency concluded. “Jabbar’s lack of experience and the crude nature of assembling the device is why he used the wrong device to detonate the explosives.”
Fox News Digital’s Sarah Rumpf-Whitten contributed to this report.
