FBI sends nationwide warning to remain vigilant in possible copycats inspired by Bourbon St. attack
HARRIS COUNTY, Texas (KTRK) -- The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Homeland Security are warning thousands of police agencies nationwide about possible copycats in the wake of the Bourbon Street attack in New Orleans.
A six-page bulletin sent out late Thursday and obtained by ABC13 urges all government and law enforcement officials to "remain vigilant of potential copycat or retaliatory attacks inspired by this attack and other recent, lethal vehicle-ramming incidents across the globe."
The Houston Regional Intelligence Service Center issued an abridged version to local agencies.
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The bulletin warns of attacks during the winter holidays and relays how ISIS has promoted using vehicles as weapons. The "vehicle-ramming" tactic is attractive to aspiring terrorists, the warning reads, due to "accessibility, low cost, and low complexity."
"A two-thousand-pound vehicle is a very deadly weapon," James Conway, a former FBI agent and counter-terrorism expert with Straife, said.
Straife is a global consulting firm.
"It's all part of the task force concept of sharing information with police because the end game is public safety," he said.
On Friday, the FBI returned to the north Harris County home where suspected terrorist Shamsud-Din Jabbar lived until Monday. The second search in three days came more than a day after agents had declared that the scene had been cleared.
"They either found something and went back or realized they overlooked something," Conway said. "Based on something they found forensically, they might have said, 'You know what, we got to take a better look at this,'"
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The FBI would not say why they returned Friday, but a car was towed from the residence.
During their first search, they confirmed they found bomb-making chemicals.
Authorities said Jabbar sped down Bourbon Street in a rented truck with an ISIS flag around 3:15 a.m. on New Year's Day, plowing into the crowd.
The attack killed 14 and injured more than two dozen people. The FBI said they also found explosives that he placed in coolers in the French Quarter.
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