Earlier on Thursday, District Attorney Liz Murrill told NBC News that they believed the suspect did not act alone, which the police and FBI are now backing away from.
We currently do not believe that anyone other than Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar was involved, says FBI spokesperson Christopher Raia at a press conference.
He further states that the FBI is going through hundreds of hours of surveillance footage and tips that have come in.
Thought of harming his family
According to Raia, the suspect rented a car in Houston and published a handful of videos on Facebook during the journey to New Orleans, swearing allegiance to IS. In the first video, he stated that he initially thought of harming his family and friends – but that it would not have illuminated the "war between believers and non-believers".
The FBI reports that they found two homemade explosives at the scene – and assume that the suspect left them there before the attack, left the area, and then returned to carry out the attack.
At the same time, Raia says that the authorities are searching a property in Mandeville, Louisiana, where phones and computers linked to the suspect have been found.
"No definitive link"
The authorities have also investigated whether there is a link between the suspect in the New Orleans attack and the driver in a car explosion outside a Trump hotel in Las Vegas. Raia says at the press conference that there is "no definitive link" between the two attacks.
At least 15 people, including the suspect, died when a car drove into New Year's revelers on the famous Bourbon Street in New Orleans. The perpetrator has been identified as a 42-year-old American citizen from Texas, and an IS flag and weapons were found in the perpetrator's car.
