New Orleans attack suspect searched for Germany truck-ramming incident hours before carrying out attack: FBI
Michael Democker/Getty Images, FILE
(NEW ORLEANS) — The man who is suspected of committing the New Years Day vehicle-ramming attack in New Orleans searched online for information about the Christmas market car-ramming attack in Germany, just hours before carrying out his own attack on Bourbon Street, according to the FBI.
In a report released Tuesday, the FBI said a search of Shamsud-Din Jabbar’s “electronics” showed that he “conducted many online searches” related to the New Orleans attack “as late as mid-November,” including “how to access a balcony on Bourbon Street” and information about Mardi Gras, which occurs in March.
“Just hours before the attack on Bourbon Street, he also searched for information about the car that rammed into innocent victims in a Christmas market in Germany just ten days before,” the FBI report said.
On Dec. 21, 2024, a man drove into a crowded German Christmas market, killing five and injuring 200, according to German authorities.
In the early hours of New Years Day, Jabbar, whom the FBI previously said had recorded videos “proclaiming his support for ISIS” and mentioning he had joined the terrorist group earlier in the year, drove a rented truck down Bourbon Street, killing 14 and injuring 57. He died in a shootout with police while he was reaching to detonate coolers filled with explosives, according to investigators.
“A total of 136 victims have been identified, including two businesses that suffered damages,” the FBI’s report said, updating the official number of victims.
The FBI report also provided more detail about Jabbar’s visits to the city prior to the attack.
“On November 10, 2024, Jabbar took a train from Houston, Texas to New Orleans and returned to Texas that evening on a bus,” the report said. “While in the city, Jabbar looked at an apartment for rent on Orleans Street. Just days after his travel he applied to rent the apartment but later told the landlord he changed his mind.”
Jabbar at the time lived in Houston, Texas. The FBI on Tuesday also released an image they said is of Jabbar in New Orleans on November 10.
“Thanks to the overwhelming response from the public, the FBI is closer to getting answers for those families who lost loved ones and the other victims of the New Year’s Day attack,” the FBI report said.
(ALTADENA, Calif) — While entire neighborhoods were ablaze in Altadena, California, on Wednesday, a scared dog named Max barked at the out-of-control flames engulfing his home.
A firefighter saw him curled up in his front yard, alone and scared. As the fireman sprayed the flames, the dog got closer and closer.
The fireman put his hand out. And the dog came.
“Visibility was pretty poor initially, so we found a place that we could stake out, especially with the winds and the conditions that we were in,” firefighter Slater Lee told ABC News’ Matt Rivers.
“I heard a dog barking, and I was like, ‘I need to find that dog,'” he said.
“The whole garage was involved in pretty heavy flames, and I looked to my side, and the dog was seated with its tail between its legs, just curled in the corner of the front yard, still barking, just in a really sad position,” Lee added.
Lee put his hand down every so often to coax the 60-pound dog into feeling comfortable with him.
“I had the nozzle in one hand cooling the garage, so [the fire] wouldn’t extend over to the house, and then trying to pet the dog and make some light of the situation,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Eaton Fire has continued to grow. It has now scorched more than 14,000 acres with 37% containment, according to Cal Fire. At least 16 people have died in the Eaton Fire, according to the LA County medical examiner.
“I don’t like to take individual credit for anything, you know, and by no means was it any sort of an individual effort,” Lee said of comforting Max. “There’s my whole crew behind me.”
Lee has only been a firefighter for about six months, still on probationary status with the San Marcos Fire Department. His chief told ABC News that some new recruits come and go but “Slater is one of the good ones. He’s going to be sticking around.”
Lee kept the dog calm until another couple of concerned citizens were able to take him. They got him to safety, out of the fire zone, while Lee stayed behind, continuing his work.
Max made it back to his family, alive and well, if a bit traumatized.
(NEW YORK) — Daniel Penny has been found not guilty of criminally negligent homicide for the death of Jordan Neely by the jury on Monday.
The jury deliberated for more than 24 hours across five days before reaching the verdict.
The courtroom broke out in a mix of cheers and jeers as soon as the verdict was read.
Jordan Neely’s father cursed in anger shortly after the verdict and was forcibly removed from the courtroom by a court officer. Others in the gallery shouted, and one woman broke down to tears.
“It’s a small world, buddy,” one man shouted.
“No justice in this racist f—— country,” said another.
Penny, walking out of the courtroom, flashed a brief smile before returning to his stone-faced demeanor. His lawyers embraced one another while seated at counsel table.
The jury in the Penny trial continued deliberations Monday over whether he committed criminally negligent homicide when he placed Neely in a chokehold on a subway car last year, after the jury was deadlocked on the more serious charge of manslaughter last week.
At the request of prosecutors on Friday, Judge Maxwell Wiley dismissed the second-degree manslaughter charge – which carried a maximum 15-year sentence – and directed the jury to turn to the lesser charge of criminally negligent homicide, which has a four-year maximum sentence. Neither crime has a minimum sentence. Penny pleaded not guilty to both charges.
“What that means is you are now free to consider count two. Whether that makes any difference or not, I have no idea,” Wiley said before sending the jury home for the weekend.
Prosecutors allege that Penny killed Neely, a 30-year-old homeless man who had previously been a Michael Jackson impersonator, when he placed him in a six-minute-long chokehold on a subway car in May 2023, holding Neely for at least 51 seconds after his body went limp. Assistant district attorney Dafna Yoran argued Penny knew his actions could kill Neely but continued to hold him in a chokehold for “way too long” and “didn’t recognize his humanity.”
The city’s medical examiner concluded Penny’s chokehold killed Neely. The defense argued Neely died from a genetic condition and the synthetic marijuana found in his system.
Defense attorney Steven Raiser told jurors that Penny “acted to save” subway passengers from a “violent and desperate” Neely, who was acting erratically and “scared the living daylights out of everybody.” Raiser argued that Neely was fighting back, and Penny continued to hold on because he feared he would break free, though he didn’t intend to kill Neely.
Wiley denied a new motion for a mistrial made Monday morning by Penny’s defense lawyers, who argued that the dismissal of the manslaughter charge would influence the jury’s verdict.
“There is no way to cure the legal error that we believe very strongly happened on Friday, and we are renewing our motion for a mistrial on the remaining count two,” said Thomas Kenniff, who said the dismissal could result in a “coercive verdict.”
Wiley disagreed, promptly denying the motion like he did on Friday when the defense unsuccessfully argued twice for a mistrial.
To prevent the possibility of influencing the jury, Wiley proposed issuing a new instruction to the jury explicitly stating that the court is “not directing you to any particular verdict.”
Wiley also offered to give the jury an instruction to ignore chants from protesters outside the courthouse – including “Justice for Jordan Neely,” “Daniel Penny subway stranger” and “If we don’t get no justice, they don’t get no peace” – which the defense team declined because it might bring more attention to the chants.
For now, the chants have quieted down, and they are no longer audible in court. If they resume, Judge Wiley said he would consider delivering an instruction or moving the jury to another deliberation room.
Last week, the jury spent more than 23 hours across four days deliberating whether Penny, a 26-year-old former Marine and architecture student, committed second degree manslaughter before repeatedly signaling that they could not reach a unanimous verdict.
Wiley ultimately granted prosecutors’ request to dismiss the first count while Penny’s defense attorneys unsuccessfully pushed for a mistrial, arguing that continued deliberations could lead to a “coercive or a compromised verdict” by “elbowing” jurors to convict on the lesser charge.
Manslaughter would have required proving that Penny acted recklessly and grossly deviated from how a reasonable person would behave, while proving criminally negligent homicide requires the jury to be convinced that Penny engaged in “blameworthy conduct” that he did not consider would lead to the risk of death.
Outside court, protesters and counter protesters have assembled, with “say his name” chants slightly audible in the 13th floor courtroom. As Penny entered the courthouse this morning, he was met with competing chants of “murderer” and “not guilty.”
(NEWCASTLE, MAINE) — President Joe Biden will sign a proclamation on Monday to establish the Frances Perkins National Monument in Newcastle, Maine.
The location will “honor the historic contributions of America’s first woman Cabinet Secretary, the longest-serving Secretary of Labor, and the driving force behind the New Deal,” according to the White House.
Perkins served as labor secretary for 12 years under President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
During that time, she “helped create Social Security; helped millions of Americans get back to work during the Great Depression; fought for the right of workers to organize and bargain collectively; and established the minimum wage, overtime pay, prohibitions on child labor, and unemployment insurance,” according to the fact sheet.
Perkins also created the Civilian Conservation Corps, a New Deal program that provided conservation and development jobs for manual laborers on government-owned rural land, according to Roosevelt presidential library.
Biden has dubbed himself the most pro-union president in American history. In 2023, he made the historic move of joining auto workers on the picket line.
The Perkins Family Home, built in 1837 and known as the “Brick House,” will be the centerpiece of the new monument, according to the White House.
“Designated a National Historic Landmark in 2014, the Perkins Homestead is a 57-acre property along the Damariscotta River that supported the family for generations,” the White House said. “Visitors experience the same landscape, garden paths and wooded walking trails that were a lifelong source of inspiration and rejuvenation for Perkins.”
In addition to this monument, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland will also announce five other monuments across the nation that will “increase the representation of women’s history in historic sites across America,” according to the White House.
