At a press conference on Sunday, the FBI revealed that the Army vet who went after a crowd in New Orleans on New Year’s Day was wearing Meta smart glasses to scope out the scene ahead of time.
FBI New Orleans Special Agent in Charge Lyonel Myrthil shared on Sunday that Jabbar hit up New Orleans twice before the attack—once in October and again in November. In October, Myrthil mentioned that Jabbar stayed in a rental spot for two days, using his Meta smart glasses to film the streets while cruising around on a bike.
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“Meta glasses appear to look like regular glasses, but they allow a user to record videos and photos hand-free,” Myrthil said. “They also allow the user to potentially livestream through their video.” Jabbar had the glasses on during his New Year’s Day attack, but they weren’t set up for a livestream, according to Myrthil. There’s no sign that he was recording the incident at all, even though the glasses were found on him. A Meta spokesperson, Andy Stone, told NBC News that the company is “in touch with law enforcement on this matter.”
The FBI dropped a compilation of clips online, including footage of Jabbar checking out the glasses in a mirror and security footage of him hanging around the area before he went on the truck rampage. They made sure to blur out the faces of bystanders.
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Jabbar, 42, ended up getting taken out in a shootout with cops after he barreled through the crowded strip in a rented truck early on New Year’s Day. Investigators also discovered that he had set up two homemade bombs in the vicinity before the attack, but luckily, neither of them went off.
Authorities also suspect that Jabbar torched a short-term rental house on Mandeville Street in New Orleans, where they discovered bomb-making materials.
Video footage captured Jabbar putting one improvised explosive device in a cooler at the corner of Bourbon and St. Peter streets around 1:53 a.m., which was later moved by some unknown individuals.
“From what we’ve observed so far — what we’ve gathered through our investigation — is that they were unwitting individuals who move the cooler from location to location without knowledge of what is in the cooler,” Myrthil said.
Jabbar, a Texas-born U.S. citizen and Army vet, claimed in videos posted online that he “joined ISIS earlier this year.” According to the FBI, he acted solo during the New Year’s Day attack and doesn’t seem to have any accomplices based in the U.S.
Myrthil updated reporters on Sunday, stating that the FBI is still digging into Jabbar’s connections, both here and overseas. One focus of their investigation is a trip Jabbar took to Cairo in 2023, along with another trip to Canada about a week after he got back.
“Our agents are getting answers as to where he went, who he met with and how those trips may or may not tie into his actions here in our city in New Orleans,” Myrthil said.
