The Federal Bureau of Investigation says the suspect in Wednesday's French Quarter terror attack set the fire set at the St. Roch house he rented in the days leading up to the attack. They also say he planned to detonate the bombs he set in the Vieux Carré remotely.
In a statement released late Friday afternoon, FBI agents said Shamsud-Din Jabbar set a small fire in the hallway of that home and "strategically placed accelerants throughout the house in his effort to destroy it and other evidence of his crime." However, agents say Jabbar's effort to destroy the home failed because the fire burned itself out before it could spread to other parts of the house.
Once investigators made it inside the home, they found bomb-making materials and a "privately-made device suspected of being a silencer for a rifle."
FBI agents added that more evidence found throughout the city of New Orleans gives them a clearer picture of what Jabbar would have done had he not crashed his rented truck into a lift and killed by police in a shootout.
"The FBI assesses that during his attack on Bourbon Street, Jabbar intended to use a transmitter, that was found in the F150 truck, to detonate the two IED’s he placed on Bourbon Street," agents said in their statement. "The transmitter, along with 2 firearms connected to Jabbar, is being transported to the FBI Laboratory for additional testing as well as clothing and shell casings from the truck. FBI personnel are also evaluating terabytes worth of video and other data collected by street cameras monitored by the New Orleans Real Time Crime Center."
The FBI also confirms that it found bomb-making materials at a home in Houston at which Jabbar lived before coming to New Orleans.
So far, the FBI says it has nearly 1,000 tips. However, they still encourage anyone who knows anything about Jabbar or who may have encountered him in the days before the Bourbon Street attack to contact the agency at 1-800-CALL-FBI or tips.fbi.gov.
