Executives at private prison firm CoreCivic expect ‘significant growth’ due to Trump’s policies

(NEW ORLEANS) — President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden will head to New Orleans on Monday to meet with the families and community members impacted by the devastating truck attack that killed 14 and injured dozens, the White House said.

The suspect, Shamsud-Din Jabbar, drove a pickup truck onto a sidewalk and around a parked police car serving as a barricade to plow into pedestrians over a three-block stretch on Bourbon Street early on New Year’s Day, police said.

Jabbar then exited the damaged vehicle armed with an assault rifle and opened fire on police officers, law enforcement said. Officers returned fire, killing Jabbar. At least two officers were injured, authorities said.

FBI Deputy Assistant Director Christopher Raia called the attack a premeditated “act of terrorism” but said there was no additional threat to the public.

The FBI and Department of Homeland Security has issued a joint intelligence bulletin warning the nation’s 18,000 law-enforcement agencies about potential copycats, ABC News learned. The bulletin was sent out of an abundance of caution to sensitize law enforcement around the country to be on the lookout for any activity pointing to the use of vehicles as a method to inflict mass casualties, sources told ABC News.

“We advise federal, state, local, tribal, and territorial government and law enforcement officials and private sector security partners to remain vigilant of potential copycat or retaliatory attacks inspired by this attack and other recent, lethal vehicle-ramming incidents across the globe,” the bulletin said.

The bulletin notes that ISIS has been promoting the use of vehicles as a terrorism weapon since around 2014.

Sources told ABC News that ISIS has ramped up calls for its supporters to launch low-tech, mass casualty ramming attacks in recent months, especially since the most recent Israel-Hamas conflict began in October 2023.

Jabbar, a 42-year-old Army veteran and U.S.-born citizen from Texas, drove from Houston to New Orleans on Tuesday evening and posted several videos online “proclaiming his support for ISIS,” and mentioning he joined ISIS before this summer, Raia said.

The bulletin stated that Jabbar was inspired by ISIS but that there remains no evidence of any co-conspirators. A senior law-enforcement official told ABC News that there is so far no sign of ISIS claiming responsibility for the New Orleans attack.

“Law enforcement should be aware that in many cases attackers have conducted vehicle-ramming attacks with secondary weapons and may continue the attack with edged weapons, firearms, or IEDs after the vehicle has stopped,” the bulletin said. The tactic could be “attractive” for foreign terrorist organizations and other actors due to its low complexity threshold, the warning said.

An intelligence bulletin from the New York Police Department obtained by ABC News indicated that ISIS supporters did celebrate the attack online. Violent extremists, the bulletin said, “continue to view densely populated walkways, parades, mass gatherings and other outdoor events along streets, especially during holidays, as vulnerable targets of opportunity.”

“This enduring threat underscores the criticality of pre-staged blocker cars and the deployment of other effectively configured countermeasures including heavy block, barriers and bollards,” it added.

Surveillance footage showed Jabbar placing two improvised explosive devices in coolers in the Bourbon Street area, Raia said. He had a remote detonator in the truck to set off the two devices, Biden said. Both devices were rendered safe, officials said.

Bomb-making materials have been recovered at Jabbar’s Houston home, sources confirmed to ABC News. The items found were also referred to as “precursor chemicals” by agents in the field, sources said.

Law enforcement cleared and reopened Bourbon Street on Thursday as the investigation continued. New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell said authorities had the “confidence” to reopen the area to the public ahead of the Sugar Bowl Thursday afternoon, which was initially scheduled for Wednesday but postponed in the wake of the attack.

“I want to reassure the public that the city of New Orleans is not only ready for game day today, but we’re ready to continue to host large-scale events in our city,” she said. “Our hearts and prayers continue to go out to the victims’ families,” Cantrell added.

There is no apparent direct connection between the New Orleans attack and Wednesday’s Tesla Cybertruck explosion outside the Trump International Hotel Las Vegas, which is also being investigated as a possible act of terror, Raia from the FBI said Thursday.

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(NEW ORLEANS) — An Army veteran who was “hell-bent” on killing as many people as possible drove a rented pickup truck around a parked police car serving as a barricade and plowed through a crowd of New Year’s revelers on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, leaving at least 15 dead and injuring dozens of others early Wednesday, city and federal officials said.

After mowing down numerous people over a three-block stretch on the famed thoroughfare while firing shots into the crowd, the suspect — identified by sources as Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42 — allegedly got out of the truck wielding an assault rifle and opened fire on police officers, law enforcement officials briefed on the incident told ABC News. Officers returned fire, killing Jabbar, a U.S.-born citizen from Texas, sources said. At least two police officers were injured, one by gunfire and the other when the officer was pinned by the truck, authorities said.

Althea Duncan, assistant special agent in charge of FBI New Orleans field office, said investigators do not believe Jabbar acted alone.

“We do not believe that Jabbar was solely responsible,” Duncan said during a news conference Wednesday afternoon. “We are aggressively running down every lead, including those of his known associates. That’s why we need the public’s help. We are asking if anybody had any interaction with Shamsud-Din Jabbar in the last 72 hours that you contact us.”

Addressing what he called “this heinous act” in a brief appearance before reporters Sunday night at the Camp David presidential retreat in Maryland, President Biden said that the FBI told him that “mere hours before the attack, [Jabbar] posted videos on social media indicating that he’s inspired by ISIS, expressing a desire to kill.”

Biden also said “law enforcement and the intelligence community” were investigating whether there was “any possible connection” between the New Orleans attack and the explosion of a Tesla Cybertruck Sunday outside of the Trump Las Vegas hotel.

“Thus far, there’s nothing to report on that score,” Biden said.

Biden also said that the suspect was “an American citizen, born in Texas. He served in the United States Army on active duty for many years. He also served in the Army Reserve, until a few years ago.”

The FBI is studying the videos President Biden referenced in his remarks, which the suspect appears to have recorded while driving from Texas to Louisiana, law enforcement sources confirmed to ABC News.

The videos are dark so the suspect isn’t seen but he can be heard talking about his divorce and a desire to kill members of his family before ultimately deciding to carry out the attack on Bourbon Street, according to the law enforcement sources.

The suspect is also heard talking about ISIS, the sources said.

A spokesperson for the consulting firm Deloitte confirmed to ABC News that Jabbar worked for the company in a “staff-level role” since 2021.

“We are shocked to learn of reports today that the individual identified as a suspect had any association with our firm,” the statement said. “Like everyone, we are outraged by this shameful and senseless act of violence and are doing all we can to assist authorities in their investigation.”

A separate source at Deloitte confirmed to ABC News that Jabbar was still employed by the consulting firm as of Sunday morning and had the job title of “senior solution specialist.”

The FBI offices in New Orleans and Houston released statements late Wednesday announcing searches related to the New Orleans attack.

“FBI special agents and our law enforcement partners are currently conducting a number of court authorized search warrants in New Orleans and other states,” the FBI’s New Orleans field office said in a statement, adding that they planned to hand over the New Orleans crime scene to local authorities by Thursday morning.

Meanwhile the FBI in Houston posted on X that they and the Harris County Sheriff’s Office were “continuing a court-authorized search of a location near the intersection of Hugh Road and Crescent Peak Drive.”

“At this time, no arrests have been made, and FBI personnel will be at the scene for several more hours,” the post continued.

New Orleans police have reviewed surveillance video that appears to show several people planting potential explosive devices in advance of the vehicle attack, which led them to believe he was not “solely responsible,” sources said. Investigators are urgently working to identify the individuals who were seen on camera and take them into custody.

Duncan said Jabbar was an Army veteran. In addition to the assault rifle, Jabbar was allegedly armed with a handgun, sources told ABC News.

Authorities are also working to determine whether there may be a link between the New Orleans attack and a Tesla Cybertruck explosion on Wednesday outside the Trump Las Vegas hotel in Nevada, which is being investigated as a possible act of terror, an official said.

Multiple law enforcement sources told ABC News that the Cybertruck that exploded in Las Vegas was rented on Turo — the same app sources said was used to rent the pickup truck used in the deadly attack in New Orleans.

Sheriff Kevin McMahill told reporters that investigators are trying to determine whether there is a connection to the New Orleans attack.

“We are heartbroken by the violence perpetrated in New Orleans and Las Vegas, and our prayers are with the victims and families,” a Turo spokesperson said in a statement in response to an ABC News request for comment. “We are actively partnering with law enforcement authorities as they investigate both incidents.”

“We do not believe that either renter involved in the Las Vegas and New Orleans attacks had a criminal background that would have identified them as a security threat,” the statement continued. “We remain committed to maintaining the highest standards in risk management, thanks to our world-class trust and safety technologies and teams that include experienced former law enforcement professionals.”

New Orleans Coroner Dr. Dwight McKenna released a statement late Wednesday afternoon that said “As of now, 15 people are deceased.”

“It will take several days to perform all autopsies. Once we complete the autopsies and talk with the next of kin, we will release the identifications of the victims,” McKenna’s statement continued.

Rep. Troy Carter, D-Louisiana, told ABC News earlier Wednesday afternoon that the number of people killed in the incident had risen from 10 to 15. He said another 25 people were hospitalized with injuries.

On Wednesday afternoon, the FBI in Houston and the Harris County, Texas, Sheriff’s Office, posted a message on social media that they are “currently conducting law enforcement activity near the intersection of Hugh Road and Crescent Peak Drive in north Houston.”

“We have secured a perimeter in that area and are asking people to avoid the area,” the notice said. “FBI Houston personnel and specialized teams will be on-site for several hours. This activity is related to this morning’s New Orleans attack, but due to the ongoing nature of the investigation, no further information can be provided.

Security bollards not working at the time

New Orleans Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said during Wednesday’s news conference that security bollards were not working at the time because they were in the process of being replaced for the upcoming Super Bowl. She confirmed that the suspect drove on the sidewalk to get around a police car blocking the intersection.

“We did indeed have a plan but the terrorist defeated it,” Kirkpatrick said.

Duncan said improvised explosives devices (IEDs) and other weapons were found inside the pickup truck. She said two additional IEDs were discovered in the French Quarter and rendered safe.

The IEDs found in and around the scene on Bourbon Street were apparently determined to be viable and investigators were looking for more in the city’s French Quarter, multiple law enforcement sources tell ABC News. The FBI said two devices were found and rendered safe. Crude pipe bombs stuffed with coils and nails were found at the scene along with a grenade, sources said.

In a YouTube video posted in 2020, the suspected attacker said he was born and raised in Beaumont, Texas, and spent a decade working in the U.S. military before becoming a realtor in the Houston area. His years in the military, he said in the video that has since been removed from YouTube, were spent working as a human resources and IT specialist.

It appears that the truck the suspect rented was spotted in Texas on Tuesday, but it was not clear if the suspect was in the vehicle at the time, according to a source citing preliminary law enforcement information. An ISIS flag was attached to the vehicle’s rear hitch, Duncan said, adding that the FBI is trying to assess the suspect’s connection to the terror groups.

The Sugar Bowl between the University of Georgia and Notre Dame has been postponed from Wednesday night to Thursday, Sugar Bowl CEO Jeff Hundley announced at Wednesday’s news conference. The game was set to kickoff Wednesday night at the Caesars Superdome in New Orleans, where police remain focused on securing the French Quarter after the vehicle ramming attack.

Jason Williams, the district attorney of Orleans Parrish, which includes New Orleans, told ABC News that investigators are conducting a grid search to determine if other explosive devices were planted.

New Orleans police and agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobaco, Firearms and Explosives have cordoned a home believed to be an AirBnB in the St. Roch neighborhood about 2 miles from downtown. It was not immediately clear if the suspect is associated with the AirBnB rental.

Investigated as terror attack

New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell described the horrific incident a “terrorist attack” and the FBI said it was being investigated as an act of terror. The bloodshed comes on the heels of a deadly vehicle ramming attack in Germany. Fears of such attacks were a growing concern among law enforcement as well as attacks by lone actors at winter holiday events.

Police Superintendent Kirkpatrick said the driver had attempted to kill as many people as possible. The truck used in the attack appeared to be a F-150 Lightning, an electric vehicle.

“He was hell-bent on creating the carnage that he did,” Kirkpatrick said at a news conference early Wednesday.

The New Orleans Police Department said the attack occurred despite the force being “staffed 100%” for New Year’s Eve and the Sugar Bowl, a college football game played annually on New Year’s Day. An additional 300 officers were on duty from partner agencies, the police department said.

President Joe Biden has been briefed on the attack and has been in touch with Cantrell to offer support, according to the White House.

“I will continue to receive updates throughout the day, and I will have more to say as we have further information to share,” Biden said in a statement. “In the meantime, my heart goes out to the victims and their families who were simply trying to celebrate the holiday. There is no justification for violence of any kind, and we will not tolerate any attack on any of our nation’s communities.”

President-elect Donald Trump posted a statement on his Truth Social platform, saying, “Our hearts are with all of the innocent victims and their loved ones, including the brave officers of the New Orleans Police Department. The Trump Administration will fully support the City of New Orleans as they investigate and recover from this act of pure evil!”

Local authorities asked the FBI for assistance early on Wednesday, a senior federal law enforcement source told ABC News. A command center was being set up, the source said. The FBI was set to lead the investigation.

‘Horrific act of violence’

“A horrific act of violence took place on Bourbon Street earlier this morning,” Gov. Jeff Landry said, adding that his family was praying for the victims and first responders.

Witness Dan McFee said he had just walked out of his hotel to get an Uber and was standing on Canal Street near Bourbon Street, when he heard squealing tires and turned to see the white pickup truck turning onto Bourbon Street and heading right toward him and a female friend.

“It made a right-hand turn onto Bourbon and it was heading directly towards me and a female friend I had with me, and [I] basically wrapped my arms around her and threw ourselves to the right of the vehicle,” McFee told ABC News. “I don’t remember exactly if it hit me or some debris, but we were flown into the air and came down on the sidewalk. The vehicle did hit a gentleman that I was standing beside. While we were down on the ground, it appeared that he was breathing and then the woman behind him didn’t appear to be breathing and the vehicle continued down the road.”

Moments later, he said he heard gunshots.

Asked if he saw the driver’s face, McFee said, “All I could remember, and it’s replaying in my head, is seeing the front of the truck coming at us.”

McFee said he and his friend suffered bumps and bruises in the incident.

Asked if he saw the steel barricades up on Bourbon Street at the time of the incident, McFee said, “I don’t believe they were up. I didn’t see any that were up.”

“I was kind of surprised that the vehicle was able to get as far as it did just considering the amount of people that were on Bourbon Street,” McFee said. “They did have those metal gates that they were able to move back and forth. I don’t know if they were down just for the Uber drivers and the Lyft drivers to get through, but I don’t remember seeing them up.”

Witness Jimmy Cothran of New Orleans told ABC News that he and a friend were walking on Bourbon Street when the truck attack began. He said they ducked into a bar and within minutes, four frantic women pushed through security, rushed into the bar and hid under tables.

“When we got on the balcony, what we saw was insanity,” Cothran, a certified emergency medical technician, said. “I mean it was something out of a movie, the graphic nature of it. It was unbelievable. We instantly counted I’d saw 10 bodies, six clearly graphically deceased and the others yelling with no one around. Everyone had just cleared the street completely.”

Cothran said he tried to go out and help the injured but was stopped by security.

Another witness, who requested to be identified only as Paul S., told ABC News he was startled awake by the sound of what he initially thought was fireworks.

“Around 3:15 [a.m.], we heard a ‘pop, pop, pop, pop’ sound followed by a sound that sounded like fireworks going off, like big fireworks all at once,” Paul S. said. “Then it turned out that was the crash.”

He said he looked outside his hotel window and saw a chaotic scene, with bodies strewn on the street below.

“What I saw was, if you can imagine a street with brick and whatnot littered all around the sidewalk, and then there were bodies laid up next to garbage cans and people rushing to give aid,” Paul S. said.

He said he observed a man who had been thrown from his wheelchair lying on the ground next to the truck involved in in the attack writhing in pain.

“There was also a body underneath a scissor lift,” Paul S. said.

Truck rented through app

The Ford F-150 Lightning truck used in the attack was apparently rented through the Turo app — a car sharing company, according to Rodrigo Diaz, the owner of the truck. Diaz told ABC News he rented the truck to an individual through the app and is currently talking to the FBI. He declined further comment.

Diaz wife, Dora Diaz, told ABC News that she and her husband are devastated by the incident.

“My husband rents cars through the Turo app. I can’t tell you anything else. I’m here with my kids, and this is devastating,” Dora Diaz said.

Preliminary information put together by law enforcement indicates the truck apparently involved in the New Orleans attack was observed Tuesday in north Harris County, Texas, a source briefed on the investigation told ABC Houston station KTRK. The truck was seen in Harris County around 10:15 a.m. and again 11:10 a.m., the source said. Just after noon on Tuesday, the truck was spotted in Baytown, Texas, heading east on Interstate 10 in the direction of New Orleans, according to the source.

Law enforcement has not said whether the suspected attacker was in the vehicle when it was spotted in Texas.

Deploying ‘every available resource

Attorney General Merrick Garland confirmed the FBI is investigating the incident as an act of terrorism. He said the the Justice Department’s National Security Division, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Louisiana are working with local law enforcement and “will deploy every available resource to conduct this investigation.”

“The country woke up this morning to news of a terrible tragedy in New Orleans that killed at least 10 people and injured many more,” Garland said in a statement. “My heart is broken for those who began their year by learning people they love were killed in this horrific attack, and my prayers are with the dozens who were injured, including the New Orleans Police Department Officers who risked their lives to save others.”

Leading up to the holidays, federal law enforcement and intelligence had warned police around the country that low-tech vehicle ramming at public events was a key area of concern and that they needed to prepare — and that was before the German Christmas market attack on Dec. 20, in which five people were killed and hundreds were injured.

In a Dec. 9 assessment for the Times Square New Year’s Eve celebration, federal and local agencies wrote: “We remain concerned about the use of vehicle ramming against high-profile outdoor events…Vehicle ramming has become a recurring tactic employed by threat actors in the West, marked by a continued interest by (terrorists, extremists) and lone offenders in targeting crowded pedestrian areas.”

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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(WASHINGTON) — Like a radioactive hot potato, a solution to America’s growing stockpile of nuclear waste keeps getting passed around.

The issue lands before the Supreme Court on Wednesday in a dispute from Texas over the federal government’s authority to allow temporary storage of spent nuclear fuel at privately owned facilities far from reactors.

The justices are being asked to reject the arrangement, even though it’s far from clear where the highly toxic waste would go.

Congress remains at an impasse over plans first approved more than 40 years ago to hold all of the country’s nuclear waste at a single permanent, underground federal facility, which has never been completed.

There are more than 91,000 metric tons of radioactive waste from U.S. commercial nuclear power plants, according to the Energy Department. The waste remains dangerous for thousands of years and must be carefully managed.

Plaintiffs in the high court case, including the state of Texas and a group of landowners, are seeking to block Nuclear Regulatory Commission approval of a private nuclear waste storage facility in the Permian Basin, an area rich with oil deposits and limited sources of safe drinking water near the New Mexico border.

Congress in 1954 gave the commission near exclusive control over the possession and transfer of nuclear material in the U.S., including the ability to issue licenses to private entities to store it in its various forms.

In 1982, lawmakers authorized creation of a federal nuclear waste site, later designated as Yucca Mountain in Nevada, and encouraged interim waste storage by private energy companies at power plants while construction moved forward.

Texas argues that because neither law makes explicit mention of storing nuclear waste at private facilities, far from the reactors where it was generated, the commission lacks the authority to issue a license.

A federal appeals court agreed, blocking construction.

“What to do with the nation’s spent nuclear fuel implicates a host of difficult technological, environmental, and political considerations. Thankfully, that policy debate is not this Court’s concern,” Texas argues in its brief to the high court. “Because Congress has decided how to handle spent nuclear fuel, all that matters is that Yucca Mountain is not in Texas and [a private storage company] is not the federal government.”

The commission insists its broad power includes a clear right to authorize temporary, privately run nuclear storage sites and that they are an imperative for the nation.

Roughly 20% of the energy consumed in the U.S. is nuclear powered, resulting in more than 2,000 metric tons of radioactive waste every year. It all has to go somewhere.

“Such storage is essential to continued operations because no currently available or reasonably foreseeable reactor and fuel cycle technology developments have the potential to fundamentally alter the waste management challenge this nation confronts over at least the next several decades,” the government argues in court documents.

The contested site in Texas, which would be run by Interim Storage Partners, had been approved by the commission to accept up to 5,000 metric tons of nuclear waste per year for 40 years.

The company told the justices in its legal brief that invalidating government authority to send nuclear waste to privately owned sites would be “destabilizing and potentially devastating to a critical industry at a critical time.”

“Utilities are forced to deal with spent nuclear fuel storage issues on a larger scale than anyone would have liked or anticipated,” the company wrote.

A ruling in favor of the government would allow the Texas storage facility to move forward. A decision in favor of the state could scuttle the plan and upend previously approved licenses for at least a dozen other privately owned nuclear waste storage locations.

The Supreme Court is expected to hand down a decision by the end of June.

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