The four people the feds thought were in cahoots with New Orleans terrorist Shamsud-Din Jabbar weren’t helping him plant bombs around the French Quarter … they were party people looking for their next drink.
Federal sources tell TMZ … the confusion started when investigators looked at surveillance video from the Bourbon Street area and noticed 3 men and a woman peering inside two coolers in which Jabbar had planted homemade bombs … leading to theories Jabbar was not acting alone.
Our sources say investigators ultimately determined these people weren’t terrorists at all … rather they were partiers checking the coolers to see if there was booze inside.
When they didn’t find what they were looking for, they walked away and left the IEDs undisturbed. The feds now believe these folks had no clue they were staring at explosive devices, possibly because they were drunk.
Our sources also say the FBI is now in possession of multiple mobile devices belonging to Jabbar … and the hope is these devices might shine a light on his ISIS radicalization.
Our sources say the feds have already put together a timeline … Jabbar went to a gun shop in Houston on Dec. 31 but he didn’t buy anything, and he also spent part of his New Year’s Eve at a gun range.
Jabbar rented the Ford pickup truck he used in the attack and got an Airbnb in New Orleans on NYE … he was planning on detonating the bombs with a trigger device.
