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Notre Dame is headed to the College Football Playoff semifinals after stunning second-seed Georgia in the Sugar Bowl, being played in New Orleans just a day after an attack on New Year’s revelers left 14 people dead.
The dominating performance by the Fighting Irish, a 23-10 victory, means all four teams that had a bye in the first round of the College Football Playoff have now been eliminated.
A moment of silence honoring the victims of the New Orleans attack was observed ahead of the national anthem with fans in attendance chanting, “USA! USA! USA!”
The game was originally scheduled for Wednesday night but was postponed to Thursday afternoon.
Read more here about the game played at the Superdome
After a family dinner on New Year’s Eve, Cathy and Lou Tenedorio asked their son Matthew to text them when he arrived home from celebrating on Bourbon Street, but that text never came, they told CNN Thursday night.
Matthew Tenedorio, 25, was one of the 14 people killed, according to his family, when a man drove a pickup truck through a crowd in New Orleans in the early hours of Wednesday.
Before he left the dinner in Slidell, Louisiana, his mother told CNN she said: “I love you. Happy New Year. You know, text me when you get home. Please don’t forget, we’re going to be worried about you.”
She said and his father tried to convince him to stay around the area, which is about a 45-minute drive from New Orleans, she told “Erin Burnett OutFront.”
But he and his friends did go to New Orleans. And after the attack began on Bourbon Street, Matthew Tenedorio ran toward the chaos to see if he could help, his parents said, citing friends who were with him.
A coroner told the family that he died of a gunshot, Cathy Tenedorio said. CNN had not independently confirmed Tenedorio was killed by a gunshot. Officials previously said the suspect died in a firefight with police after the attack.
Now, his mother is remembering her son as having “the biggest heart.”
“This morning the gravity of the situation really hit home and I just realized that I will never see my son again,” Lou Tenedorio said. “I just broke down, and honestly, my heart is broken.”
“It’s just so hard for me right now to live with this,” he added.
As authorities work to piece together the events that led to a Texas veteran to become radicalized before plowing a truck through a New Orleans crowd, the White House has so far seen no evidence of foreign direction or involvement in the attack, a source familiar with the matter told CNN.
President Joe Biden spent roughly an hour in the Situation Room with his top national security officials on Thursday, receiving a detailed briefing from the FBI on an ongoing investigation involving nearly a thousand law enforcement officials into the New Year’s Eve attack that left 14 dead and dozens injured.
“Federal law enforcement and intelligence community are actively investigating any foreign or domestic contacts and connection that could possibly be relevant to the attack,” Biden said Thursday at the White House.
In recent weeks, as a rebel coup in Syria overthrew the Assad regime, the Biden administration expressed concerns about the terror group exploiting a leadership vacuum. Senior administration officials noted the United States has maintained a military presence in the region to prevent a reconstitution of ISIS and carried out targeted airstrikes on ISIS leaders.
At present, officials are treating the most recent ISIS-linked lone wolf attack in New Orleans and the fall of the Assad regime as a coincidence, though they note the investigation is ongoing: So far there has been no evidence yet that Shamsud-Din Jabbar, who pledged allegiance to ISIS before plowing his truck into a crowd, was coordinating with anyone overseas.
Media company Audacy in a statement Thursday said it will remember its New York-based account executive Billy DiMaio, who was killed during the terrorist attack in New Orleans, as a “true asset.”
“We are heartbroken to learn of the passing of Billy DiMaio,” an Audacy spokesperson told CNN on Thursday. “Beyond his professional achievements, Billy will be fondly remembered for his unwavering work ethic, positive attitude, and kindness.”
The company said 25-year-old DiMaio was a “true asset to the Audacy team, and his contributions and presence will be deeply missed.”
DiMaio worked at the company for nearly two years where he began as an account manager in performance sales, according to his LinkedIn profile.
Audacy is a multi-platform audio content and entertainment company, according to the company’s website.
The family of the suspected terror attacker who killed 14 revelers in New Orleans said the man they knew is completely different from the one who allegedly drove a pickup truck into a crowd on Bourbon Street.
“He was very well tempered, slow to anger, kind, soft spoken,” 24-year-old Abdur Jabbar said of his brother, Shamsud-Din Jabbar. “That’s why it was so unbelievable that he would be capable of something like this.”
Abdur and their 65-year-old father, Rahim, said they never saw any signs of someone who was radicalized and hatching a deadly plot.
“Something screwed him up. He’s not this type of person,” Abdur said. “Someone or something fogged his mind.”
“That’s what’s puzzling us,” Rahim told CNN. “He wasn’t going through something that we knew of,” later adding, “It’s all around bad for everybody.”
Abdur said he got home on Wednesday morning off from working the night shift at a railroad company when he got a call from another relative saying Shamsud was identified as the attacker. Abdur thought there must have been a mistake until he saw his brother’s face plastered all over the news.
“I was shocked that somebody so close to me could cause all this destruction,” he said. “I feel for those people over there — and that had to witness it.”
Abdul said that Jabbar, the father of three with two ex-wives, never let on that anything was bothering him or that he was in any financial trouble. The pair were never close growing up because of the significant age gap but connected after their father suffered a stroke in August of 2023, speaking almost daily. Abdur said their relationship had been mostly that of a distant relative, only seeing each other once or twice a year. But after the stroke, they became closer, with the older Shamsud offering career guidance and life advice.
One thing they never spoke of was ISIS.
“He’s never shared anything like that or of that nature with me,” Abdur said, adding that they were raised Muslim and regularly attended a mosque on Friday nights growing up.
“He understood what it meant to be a Muslim and that’s what I’ve seen from him in the time we got closer,” Abdur said. “How he carried himself and how he treated other people. It wasn’t anything of this nature. It wasn’t this tragedy. It was the complete opposite.”
Shamsud’s father said he lamented not having a chance to talk his son out of the attack.
“How do you know what to do if they don’t tell you,” Rahim said, adding that they were close. “We would have certainly tried, because we knew it wouldn’t have been a good ending.”
Abdur says he still views Shamsud as a kind and compassionate man, despite the attack.
“I’m in no way condoning what he did. What he did wasn’t right,” Abdur said. “But there’s still a line between what he did and him being the human being and the brother he was to me.”
The family of a 26-year-old who was killed in the New Orleans attack said that “raising him will always be one of the greatest joys of our lives.”
The family of Drew Dauphin said in a statement that they are “suffering more than anyone can imagine.”
“Drew lit up every room he entered. His smile was infectious. He had the best personality. We are such a tight family, dependent on each other, friends, family and neighbors,” the family said.
“Our family is numb and in shock through this horrific and senseless tragedy,” the statement added.
Dauphin graduated from Auburn Univeristy in 2023, according to the school.
“On behalf of Auburn University, I send my sincere condolences to the family and loved ones of 2023 graduate Drew Dauphin who was taken from us in the New Orleans terror attack,” Auburn University President Christopher B. Roberts said in a post on Facebook.
“Words cannot convey the sorrow the Auburn Family feels for Drew’s family and friends during this unimaginably difficult time,” Roberts said. “Our thoughts are with the Dauphin family and the families of all the victims of this senseless tragedy.”
This post has been updated with the family’s statement.
The FBI released new photos of the suspect in Wednesday’s fatal New Orleans attack.
“Newly released surveillance photos show Shamsud-Din Jabbar a little more than an hour before the deadly Bourbon Street attack,” the FBI shared Thursday on X.
“The FBI is asking witnesses who passed him on the street or saw this blue ice chest containing an IED to contact us,” the post added.
Two of the images show Jabbar walking along Dauphine Street near Governor Nicholls Street at around 2 a.m. local time in a long, tan coat and jeans, according to the FBI. Another image shows a blue cooler with a long handle that was placed near Bourbon and Orleans Streets.
Some context: FBI Deputy Assistant Director of the Counterterrorism Division Christopher Raia said earlier Thursday that Jabbar was seen on surveillance video between 1 a.m. and 2 a.m. local time planting improvised explosive devices at the intersection of Bourbon and New Orleans streets and another location two blocks away.
“The IED was inside a cooler, and many people stopped and looked at the cooler and then continued on their way,” Raia said.
The intersection of Dauphine and Governor Nicholls Streets, where the suspect is walking in the images, is a block away from Bourbon Street.
This post was updated with additional context.
Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas said the FBI still has “a great deal of investigation” to do into Wednesday’s attack in New Orleans, but that “a conclusion has been reached” in terms of the suspect’s motive.
“This is an event that was inspired by a foreign terrorist ideology,” Mayorkas told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on Thursday. “This individual ascribed to the heinous beliefs of ISIS.”
Mayorkas went on to say that the FBI is still looking into how suspect Shamsud-Din Jabbar — a US citizen and army veteran — began on the “path to radicalization.”
“That is one of the key elements of the investigation,” Mayorkas said.
The secretary told Blitzer that while a motive has been identified for the New Orleans attack, officials are still in the preliminary stage of investigation for the incident in Las Vegas, where a Tesla Cybertruck exploded outside the Trump International Hotel on Wednesday.
“A motive has not been identified,” he said of the explosion. “There is no evidence of any other individuals working in concert with the individual in the Cybertruck but we cannot rule that out. But there is no evidence of other conspirators.”
Mayorkas added that investigators do not yet have enough information to conclude that the New Orleans and Las Vegas incidents were or were not affiliated.
Officials released new details Thursday about the deadly attack in New Orleans’ famed Bourbon Street, a day after 14 people were killed and dozens injured early on New Year’s Day.
The suspect, Shamsud-Din Jabbar, is accused of driving a pickup truck into a crowd of people in what the FBI has described as “an act of terrorism” that was “100% inspired by ISIS.” The attacker — who the FBI believes acted alone — also planted explosives in ice coolers in the French Quarter just hours before the attack, according to President Joe Biden, who cited an FBI briefing.
The family and friends of those killed are remembering their loved ones as Bourbon Street reopened this afternoon.
Here’s what we learned today:
- Deputy Assistant Director Christopher Raia with the FBI Counterterrorism Division said the attack with a “premeditated and evil act” and an “act of terrorism.” In a series of videos, the suspect discussed planning to kill his family and having dreams that helped inspire him to join ISIS, according to officials briefed on the investigation.
- Raia said the FBI believes that Jabbar acted alone. Investigators had previously been looking into whether others were responsible for placing improvised explosive devices separate from the truck they say Jabbar used to run over the crowd. Biden later said the suspect had a remote detonator in the vehicle to set off the explosives, citing the FBI.
- FBI bomb technicians recovered two improvised explosive devices in coolers, seen on surveillance footage being placed in the Bourbon Street area by Jabbar, according to Raia. The IEDs were placed in the area hours before the attack, he said. He said several people walking by had stopped and looked at the coolers.
- The FBI also said it has not yet found a link between the New Orleans attack and an incident in Las Vegas involving a Tesla Cybertruck. Still, Raia said it is “very early” in the investigation.
- Raia said the FBI is working to fill in more details of Jabbar’s movements. He said officials are investigating “three phones linked to Jabbar” and two laptops that were recovered. A neighbor of Jabbar said he saw the suspect loading a white truck in Houston on New Year’s Eve. He said Jabbar told him he was moving to Louisiana to start a new job.
- Jabbar appears to have posted listings for guns and ammunition on a firearm sales website. The listings were posted on the website Armslist.com by an account with the username “shamjabbar” with a Houston location.
New details about the victims:
- Reggie Hunter, a 37-year-old Louisiana man, is remembered by his cousin Travis Hunter as a “good, pure hearted person.” He leaves behind two children, an 11-year-old and a 1-year-old, according to his cousin.
- School officials at Archbishop Shaw High School asked for the community to pray for Hubert Gauthreaux, 21, who graduated from the school in 2021.
- 2023 Auburn University graduate Drew Dauphin was also among those killed.
- Matthew Tenedorio, a 25-year-old from Slidell, Louisiana, was “a larger-than-life kind of guy. He’s always cracking jokes. He always had a smile,” his cousin said.
- Read more details here about those who lost their lives in the attack.
What else is happening in the city: A moment of silence honored the victims in the attack ahead of the Sugar Bowl in New Orleans on Thursday. The game was postponed after the attack. Bourbon Street was also reopened as police raised barricades and put in additional safety measures.
Terrorism warnings: The Department of Homeland Security warned law enforcement last month of the threat of violence from lone offenders around the holidays and the potential use of vehicle ramming, according to two internal memos obtained by CNN. The Justice Department has charged alleged ISIS sympathizers in the US at least three times since last fall.
President Joe Biden told reporters gathered in the White House’s East Room Thursday that he’ll try to travel to New Orleans following Wednesday’s attack on Bourbon Street.
Earlier Thursday, Biden met with members of his national security team in the Situation Room where, in a readout following the meeting, the White House said he “directed his team to continue to make every resource available to federal, state, and local law enforcement so they can complete their investigations as quickly as possible.”
And in remarks from the State Dining Room earlier, he told reporters there was no indication any other people helped carry out the Wednesday attack.
This week’s deadly incidents in New Orleans and Las Vegas have thrust Turo, a car rental platform, into the spotlight, after vehicles used in both attacks were rented through its marketplace.
Turo calls itself a “peer-to-peer car sharing service,” meaning users can rent cars through the app directly from their owners, as opposed to traditional rental companies like Hertz and Avis, which own the rental fleets themselves directly.
The attacks could be a major black eye for Turo, which has been angling for what could be a lucrative initial public offering. The company previously acknowledged the risk of financial and brand damage from fatalities and other incidents that could be caused by vehicles rented on its platform.
In a statement on Wednesday, the company confirmed with a “heavy heart” that vehicles rented on the platform were involved in the two attacks.
Here’s what we know about the company and what the attacks could mean for its business.
The company doesn’t own any rental cars itself. Instead, Turo lets car owners list their vehicles for rent by other people, and the company takes a commission from each deal. That means that unlike traditional rental car companies, Turo doesn’t need to shell out to purchase and maintain a fleet of cars. And it often doesn’t face similar regulations and consumer protections of a traditional car rental company, nor do the people renting out those cars through Turo.
While there are some owners who rent out cars they otherwise would be driving themselves, many of the people renting out vehicles on the platform own vehicles with the intention of renting them out. Renters need a driver’s license, validated through the app, and must be 18 years old in the US, but they do not need personal car insurance, similar to traditional rental companies.
A moment of silence honoring the victims of the New Orleans attack was held before the start of the Sugar Bowl, the final game of the College Football Playoff quarterfinals being held at Caesars Superdome.
The National Anthem followed the moment of silence.
President Joe Biden said Thursday there’s “no information that anyone else was involved” in the New Orleans terrorist attack nor evidence of its connection to the Las Vegas truck explosion.
“The FBI briefed me that as of now, we have no information that anyone else was involved in the attack,” Biden told an audience at the White House. “They’ve established that the attacker is the same person who planted the explosives in those ice coolers in two nearby locations in the French Quarter just a few hours before he rammed into the crowd with his vehicle. They assessed he had a remote detonator in his vehicle to set off those two ice chests.”
Investigators “are actively investigating any foreign or domestic contacts and connections that could possibly be relevant to the attack,” he added.
The Justice Department has charged alleged ISIS sympathizers in the US at least three times since last fall.
Federal court filings highlight how often in recent months authorities have detained the defendants before they say any attack could have been carried out — even as the New Orleans massacre shows the difficulty of disrupting such attacks.
In the last decade, more than 250 people have been charged in US courts with ISIS-related activities, according to data collected by National Counterterrorism Innovation, Technology, and Education Center. Federal authorities have made about a dozen such arrests a year in recent years, according to Seamus Hughes, a NCITE terrorism researcher at the University of Nebraska Omaha. Many are charged with providing material support to a foreign terrorist organization, though defense attorneys sometimes argue their actions are free speech and didn’t result in violence.
The case of Anas Said, one alleged ISIS sympathizer, offers a particular window into how federal authorities have tracked and built similar cases in recent months. Though Said was from the same area where the suspect in the New Year’s Day attack said he was based in 2020, the two men currently have no known connections.
The FBI interviewed the Lebanese American man multiple times after they said he began purchasing pro-ISIS stickers in 2017, and Facebook’s parent company alerted investigators last year to alleged posts by Said supporting ISIS and violence. Prosecutors also allege he created ISIS propaganda for followers on group chats, wanting to attack military recruiting stations near his home, and researched a Jewish organization in Houston that supported Israel in its current war.
He has pleaded not guilty to charges of attempting to provide material support to ISIS between 2017 and fall 2024 and is being held as he awaits a trial.
Other alleged ISIS sympathizers arrested in recent months include a 21-year-old from Maryland who became known to the FBI after his social media account posted about radical Islam, according to court records. Prosecutors have also brought a case against a 27-year-old Afghanistan citizen who has been in the US since 2021, accusing him of buying AK-47s and planning an Election Day attack alongside his underage in-law.
The men have pleaded not guilty in their separate cases and await trial in detention.
New Orleans attack suspect Shamsud-Din Jabbar was arrested in 2020 by police in Missouri City, Texas, for an alleged misdemeanor involving alcohol, county records show.
Documents state that Jabbar was charged with a “DWI/open alcohol container” violation and that he paid a bond of $500.
The outcome of the case was not clear in the documents. The local district attorney’s office did not immediately respond to a question about the case. That arrest occurred the same month a Texas judge granted Jabbar’s second wife a restraining order against him during their divorce case.
Jabbar had other run-ins with law enforcement. In 2015, he pleaded guilty to charges related to driving under the influence. He also pleaded guilty to misdemeanor theft of between $50 and $500 in December 2002.
Twenty-five-year-old Matthew Tenedorio from Slidell, Louisiana, was one of the 14 victims of the deadly truck attack in New Orleans, according to his cousin.
The only information the coroner gave the family was that he died from a gunshot, Christina Bounds said. CNN cannot independently confirm Tenedorio was killed by a gunshot.
“So that night he had dinner with his family, his mom, his dad, his brother and his niece at his brother’s house in Slidell, Louisiana. They had New Year’s Eve dinner. They begged Matthew not to go,” Bounds told CNN.
However, Tenedorio ultimately ended up making the roughly 45 minute drive to New Orleans with two friends to celebrate the holiday. As they were walking to a bar, the two friends told the family that all three of them saw a body fly up in the air, which they later realized was most likely from the truck running over someone.
“They look up and they’re like, ‘Where did that body come from? What’s going on?’ And they hear the noises and they start running toward the screams to go and help, or at least Matthew did. The other two friends got shoved in bars by the police. And (Matthew) took a gunshot,” Bounds said, adding that the two friends were OK.
The family couldn’t get in touch with Tenedorio New Year’s Day. Bounds attempted to use the “find my device” phone feature, but it wasn’t working. His parents went to the University Medical Center to try to get some answers, Bounds said.
Now, the family wants to know if Tenedorio died instantly from a gunshot wound or if he was taken in an ambulance and later succumbed to his injuries. They also want to know if the bullet came from the attacker’s gun. The suspect died after a firefight with police.
“He had high hopes of having his own family,” Bounds said. “He was a larger-than-life kind of guy. He’s always cracking jokes. He always had a smile, I mean he smiled more than I did.”
Tenedorio worked as a member in video production team for ASM, the company that manages two major venues in New Orleans — the Caesars Superdome, where the NFL team the New Orleans Saints play, and the Smoothie King Center, home of the Pelicans, an NBA team, the two teams said in a statement.
The statement, posted on X by the Saints, said Tenedorio was “young, talented, and had a bright future” and that he made content for both teams.
His cousin Zach Colgan told CNN that Tenedorio was an audio visual technician at the Superdome stadium. Both his dad and older brother also work there, he said.
CNN’s Danny Freeman contributed to this report.
This post was updated with information about Tenedorio’s work for ASM.
Shamsud-Din Jabbar, the man accused of driving a vehicle into a crowd in New Orleans, received medals for his overseas military service and Afghanistan deployment.
He received numerous other military awards that are relatively standard, though they indicate honorable service, to include multiple Army Commendation Medals and Army Good Conduct Medals.
Jabbar served in the active-duty Army and Army Reserve from 2007 to 2020 and left service as a staff sergeant.
President Joe Biden was updated on both the New Orleans terror attack and Las Vegas car explosion during a national security meeting Thursday, the White House said in a readout following the meeting.
Vice President Kamala Harris and Biden’s homeland security team were present for the briefings, the White House said in a statement.
“The President directed his team to continue to make every resource available to federal, state, and local law enforcement so they can complete their investigations as quickly as possible,” the statement added.
In Wednesday evening remarks from Camp David, the president said “no one should jump to conclusions” and that he was directing top law enforcement officials to continue to “intensively” investigate the New Orleans attack.
There is no definitive connection right now between Wednesday’s car ramming in New Orleans and the detonation of explosives inside a Tesla Cybertruck outside a Trump Hotel in Las Vegas on the same day, the FBI said in a briefing Thursday.
New Orleans truck attack suspect Shamsud-Din Jabbar appears to have posted listings for guns and ammunition on a firearm sales website.
The listings were posted on the website Armslist.com by an account with the username “shamjabbar” with a Houston location. Jabbar’s email address is associated with accounts with the same username on other sites. Several of the Armslist listings also include a phone number that is associated with one of Jabbar’s real estate businesses.
The listings include a 12 gauge semi-automatic shotgun, a 357 magnum pistol, and a CZ 52 pistol. “Great for sending home invaders to Hell!” the listing for the shotgun says.
It’s unclear when the listings, which are described as “deactivated by the seller,” were first posted on the site. Armslist did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Police have said that Jabbar exchanged fire with officers after he rammed a pickup truck into a crowd of New Year’s revelers in New Orleans early Wednesday morning but have not released details about the gun or guns he used in the attack.
A resident of the St. Roch neighborhood in New Orleans said he was shocked to learn the suspect in the deadly attack had been staying at the Airbnb next to his home.
According to Michael Adasko, law enforcement officials knocked on his door Wednesday morning and asked him to evacuate the area.
“At 9 a.m. we got an urgent knock on the door and police said, ‘Everyone out. The whole block is being evacuated,’” Adasko said. “But when they learned I had Ring footage, they asked me to stay. As I continued to review the video more officials began to show up.”
The footage shows the moment the suspect, Shamsud-Din Jabbar, unloaded his rented truck outside the Airbnb at around 10:02 p.m. Tuesday on Mandeville Street.
The camera captured the truck sitting idle with the lights on about an hour later, Adasko said.
Prior to the door knock, Adasko said he was woken up around 5 a.m. by the sound of fire trucks.
“There are a lot of variables that make this scary. At 5:10 a.m., I woke up to eight fire trucks putting out a fire at the Airbnb next door. We had smelled fire earlier in the night, but we thought it was fireworks,” Adasko said. “If my neighbor hadn’t called 911 around 4 a.m., we could’ve died.”
The fire started after Jabbar was already deceased, according to Joshua Jackson, Special Agent in Charge for the ATF New Orleans Field Division, said Thursday at a news conference. Jackson said that ATF is still at that scene.
It appears explosive devices associated with the attack were manufactured at the Airbnb that was rented out “for that purpose,” Louisiana Attorney General Liz Murrill told NBC News.
“We eventually went back to sleep, but it was scary sleep. It still smelled like fire,” Adasko added.
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