Shamsud-din Jabbar, U.S. Army veteran who used white truck to mow down New Year’s revelers on Bourbon Street in New Orleans.
When I saw the horrifying footage on New Year's morning showing that white, Ford pickup truck mowing down sidewalk revelers in New Orleans, I thought back to a terrifying, Halloween afternoon in New York City on October 31, 2017.
Sayfullo Saipov, an Uzbek national, was also using a white pickup--a rental from Home Depot in New Jersey. Surveillance footage picked up the 6,000 pound truck speeding south on a popular bike path on West Street in Manhattan, before it slammed into cyclists and pedestrians, killing eight of them.
Sayfullo Saipov flees rented, Home Depot truck after mowing down cyclists and pedestrians during a one mile rampage on Halloween 2017.
The attack happened in the shadow of the gleaming Freedom Tower, built at the site of the former Twin Towers, which were brought down by hijacked jets that flew into them on September 11, 2001. The Halloween attack in 2017 was the first, deadly terror attack in New York City, post 9/11. It took sixteen years before one of the many, follow-up plots against NYC was successful.
In the 2017 truck attack, five of the dead were Argentine tourists enjoying a high school reunion in New York, their mangled bicycles recorded on the path for evidence in a future trial. Saipov rammed into people for about a mile, eventually crashing his truck into a yellow school bus, before fleeing on foot and using a pellet gun to shoot at responding police officers. Witnesses said Saipov was yelling, "Allahu Akbar," which is Arabic for "God is great." One of the cops shot Saipov and brought him down. Saipov survived the gunfire.
Mangled bicycle on West Street path in New York City, after truck driver killed 8 people on Halloween 2017.
This incident happened during my reporting days at PIX11 News, and I remember clearly working my cell phone in the 10th floor newsroom, while the anchors were broadcasting "live" in the second floor TV studio, eager for updates. Two, high-ranking NYPD officials gave me early information that Saipov had left a letter near the truck espousing radical ideology in the name of the Islamic State, known as ISIS. We were the first station to report that in New York City, but a then-news manager became concerned when no one else reported similar information and suggested I dial it back. Mayor Bill deBlasio later confirmed our reporting, when he announced at a "live" news conference, "This was an act of terror."
Sayfullo Saipov, Uzbek-born radical who mowed down cyclists and pedestrians with truck on Halloween 2017 in New York City.
An FBI agent later testified at trial that Saipov wanted to hang an ISIS flag in his New York hospital room and said Saipov planned the attack to gain entrance to the terror organization.
Many believed Saipov was inspired by a mass casualty attack in Nice, France the year before on a significant French holiday: Bastille Day. July 14 is a national holiday in France--much like July 4th is in the United States. On July 14, 2016, Tunisian-born
Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhel had driven a 19-ton cargo truck onto a crowded, ocean-side promenade, killing 86 people and injuring more than four hundred others. The suspect was then fatally shot during an exchange of gunfire with police. ISIS claimed responsibility for the terror attack and praised the driver for targeting citizens of a nation that fights the Islamic State. It remains the single, deadliest act of terror involving 'truck as weapon' in the world.
Truck used in Bastille Day attack in Nice, France on July 14, 2016.
Two months before the 2017 Halloween attack in New York, a truck was used to mow down people in the popular tourist destination of Barcelona, Spain in August 2017, leaving 14 people dead. ISIS claimed responsibility for this plot, as well.
There have been roughly fifteen terror attacks using 'truck or car as weapon' since 2006. Very recently, on December 20, 2024, a Saudi-born doctor with far-right political views utilized a car to slam into shoppers at a Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany. It was not the first time a holiday market was targeted with a vehicular weapon in Europe.
Shamsud-Din Jabbar, the U.S. Army veteran who took credit for the fatal, New Year's morning attack on Bourbon Street in New Orleans--even flying an ISIS flag on the truck's bed--is dead now. The FBI said Jabbar, also a Deloitte consultant and real estate broker, had self-radicalized in recent years. He had served in Information Technology and Human Resources posts for the Army between 2007 and 2015, even doing a one year 'tour of duty' in Afghanistan.
Sayfullo Saipov, the convicted killer in the 2017 Halloween truck attack, is serving eight life sentences in federal prison--with 260 additional years imposed by the judge. One of the enduring images I will always remember came during the 2023 death penalty phase of his trial, a penalty that was rejected by the jury.
Smashed grill on rented Home Depot truck used in 2017 Halloween terror attack that left 8 dead.
One of the surviving bicyclists was a Belgian woman named Marion Van Reeth. She used to cycle for charity. But she arrived at the downtown courthouse in a wheelchair in January 2023--both of her legs gone after the 2017 attack. Her husband and son were there to support her.
In New Orleans the road barrier was not replaced after being torn down. The Duty Ron crime channel mentioned that a garbage truck or other big vehicle should be set across the road entrance to any major outdoor celebration.