A driver killed 10 people and injured dozens more after plowing a pickup truck donning an ISIS flag into a crowd of people celebrating the New Year on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, just days after a pro-ISIS outlet called on Muslims to wage Islamic jihad in the U.S., Europe and Russia. Crazy is as crazy does.
The tragic event happened at about 3:15 a.m. on New Year’s Day and the FBI identified the driver as 42-year-old Shamsud Din Jabbar of Texas. Police said the suspect died after jumping out of his truck and trading gunfire with responding officers. The FBI told reporters on Wednesday that an ISIS flag was located on the trailer hitch of the vehicle, adding that the FBI is working to determine Din Jabbar’s potential associations and affiliation to the terrorist organization.
A pro-ISIS outlet turned to Telegram and called on Muslims living in the US, Europe and Russia to conduct attacks on New Year’s Eve. "Oh monotheists in Europe, America, Russia and other lands of the Crusaders, we know that you are eager to join your brothers in the land of Jihad, but the paths have been cut off for you," a translated version of the post read. "The Crusaders are among you. Their security has been prolonged, and your brothers are being killed.
"The time has come to take out the swords from their sheaths and to hamstring the horses in their places that Allah loves and is pleased with," the post continued. "They are preparing for the feast of their polytheism, so turn their feast into mourning and their joy into a calamity." The outlet asked Muslims, or "Crusaders," if they felt safe in their homes as their brothers and sisters were in detention centers and camps, before calling on them to "repeat the attack on them and repeat the days of those who preceded you on this path."