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The New Orleans terrorist attacker raised “red flags” as he placed two IEDs in the French Quarter hours before he carried out an attack that left 14 civilians dead, according to behavioral analyst Susan Constantine.
Constantine described Shamsud-Din Jabbar as an “anomaly” in the French Quarter on New Year’s Eve, as shown in videos released by the FBI last week. In the videos, Jabbar can be seen wearing a long, formal-looking coat and glasses, carrying a cooler on wheels and frequently looking at his phone.
“These are all red flags,” Constantine told Fox News Digital. “Anyone looking for danger would pull out these anomalies, he’s texting very quickly, obviously in communication with someone else. And then he’s motioning to someone.”
Jabbar appears to wave around the 2:30-minute mark in the surveillance video of him carrying around the IED coolers in the French Quarter, and while he may have been waving to an accomplice, Constantine said the wave also could have been an attempt to look less “conspicuous.”
Investigators work the scene after a person drove a vehicle into a crowd earlier on Canal and Bourbon Streets in New Orleans, Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
The FBI continues to investigate the attack and said Jabbar was motivated by ISIS extremism.
Federal authorities announced last week that Jabbar had previously visited New Orleans on two occasions — once on Oct. 31, 2024, and once on Nov. 10, 2024. The attacker also visited Cairo, Egypt, and Toronto, Canada, prior to the attack, the FBI said.
While Jabbar apparently acted alone, authorities are still investigating whether he had any accomplices.