S3 Ep264: Crime Weekly News: Bourbon Street Terrorist Attack

On January 1, 2025, a devastating terrorist attack unfolded on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, Louisiana. At approximately 3:15 a.m. CST, 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a U. S. Army veteran, drove a rented Ford F-150 Lightning into a crowd celebrating New Year's Day. The attack resulted in 15 deaths, including the perpetrator, and left 57 others injured, including two police officers. Try our coffee!! - www. CriminalCoffeeCo.comBecome a Patreon member -- > ｿ https://www.patreon.com/CrimeWeeklyShop for your Crime Weekly gear here --> ｿ https://crimeweeklypodcast.com/shopYoutube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CrimeWeeklyPodcastWebsite: CrimeWeeklyPodcast.comInstagram: @CrimeWeeklyPodTwitter: @CrimeWeeklyPodFacebook: @CrimeWeeklyPod ADS:1. OneSkin. Co - Use code CWN for 15% off!2. Acorns.com/CrimeWeeklyNews - Download the Acorns app today!

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 0:45Speaker 00

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• 1:14Derrick Levasseur?

  Hey, everyone. Welcome back to Crime Weekly News. I'm Derrick Levasseur.

• 1:18Stephanie Harlowe?

  And I'm Stephanie Harlow.

• 1:19Derrick Levasseur?

  And we're back. It's a new year. We're here to get into 2025, and we've got some big things planned for Crime Weekly this year. But unfortunately, with Crime Weekly News, we're usually not discussing good things. And speaking of New Year's, as almost everybody knows by now, there was a tragedy on New Year's Day, and it was something that has affected the entire country. There's a lot to go into, we'll get there. But for anybody who needs a little bit of a recap, on New Year's Day, large crowds gathered on Bourbon Street in New Orleans to celebrate the new year. At around 3:15 a.m., a truck sped around a police blockade and raced through a crowd of people, leaving 14 people dead and 35 people injured.

• 2:03Derrick Levasseur?

  Now, after this accident happened, the offender got out of the vehicle and got into Basically a shootout with police officers and he actually wounded a couple of police officers. But fortunately before it got too crazy, the suspect was killed by law enforcement before there were any more deaths. So crazy situation. Everyone has seen the videos online. We're obviously not going to play them here. In fact, a couple of family members have already come out and said like, that's our daughter. We don't want to see that anymore. Please stop playing it. So we we're not going to play any of the footage from it. If you've seen it, then you've seen it. And if you haven't, you're not missing anything. But there's a lot more to discuss because since this has happened,

• 2:45Derrick Levasseur?

  a lot of new information has come out about the offender, the people involved, and maybe another connection to another attack that recently happened.

• 2:52Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah, so the attacker has been identified as forty two year old Shamsud Din Jabbar, a US born citizen originally from Texas. The FBI has reported that Jabbar is in or was an army veteran. He enlisted in two thousand and seven. He was deployed to Afghanistan in February of two thousand and nine for about a year before he was transferred into the US Army Reserve. When he left the military in twenty twenty, Jabbar had the rank of Staff Sergeant, but since then, his life has just not been going well. In twenty twenty two, while separating from his wife, Jabbar was behind on his mortgage payments. He had accumulated quite a bit of credit card debt. He had some businesses that had that had gone under, which also caused some debt.

• 3:35Stephanie Harlowe?

  And court documents show that at this time he was making ten thousand, about ten thousand dollars a month, doing business development work for a consulting firm called DeLatti, where he had worked since twenty twenty one, but his expenses were just mounting and and he couldn't really, he could not basically survive, I guess, on what he was making based on what what was going out. According to AP News, quote, five videos Jabbar posted on his Facebook account in the hours before the attack showed him previewing the violence that he would soon carry out. He also proclaimed his support for the Islamic State and said he had joined the militant group before last summer. Surveillance videos the FBI obtained showed Jabbar placing potential explosive devices concealed in coolers in the French.

• 4:20Stephanie Harlowe?

  Quarter, end quote. So according to a published timeline, Jabbar actually visited Cairo, Egypt between June 22 and July 3 of 2023. He then returned to the United States. He then went to Ontario, Canada between July 10 and 13. We don't know what he was doing in Cairo or Ontario. And then on October 30, 2024, he went to New Orleans. On October 31, Jabbar recorded himself using a pair of Meta Smart Glasses while he rode a bike through the French Quarter and plotted his future attack. On November 10, Jabbar was back in New Orleans and nine days later, he purchased a semi-automatic rifle in Arlington, Texas. On December 31, he visited

• 5:01Stephanie Harlowe?

  a gun store in Texas and purchased an ice chest that authorities said would hold an improvised explosive device. At 2:30 PM on December 31, Jabbar arrived in New Orleans for a third time that year. And at 9 PM that night, he rented an F-150 pickup truck in Gonzalez, Louisiana, which is about 65 miles away from the New Orleans French Quarter area. On January 1, at around 12:41 AM, he parked the truck and then walked to Royal and Governor Nickel Street in New Orleans. And at 1:53 AM, he placed the first of his improvised explosive devices at Bourbon and St. Peter's Street. Now, this cooler actually ended up being moved by someone about a block

• 5:43Stephanie Harlowe?

  away. Law enforcement says the person who moved it was not involved in the attack. At 2:20 AM, Jabbar placed a second device at Bourbon and Toulouse Streets. At 3:15 AM, Jabbar drove the rented truck onto a sidewalk. He drove around a police blockade at the Canal Street entrance of Bourbon Street, and he killed and injured multiple people until he crashed into some construction equipment, at which time he was shot and killed by police. Now Jabbar's friends and family members have responded in the wake of this tragedy with shock. His half-brother, Abdur, said, quote, "It's a complete surprise, a shock to everyone. There weren't any moments leading up to this that were apparent or red flags to show that he's been radicalized or changed

• 6:24Stephanie Harlowe?

  in any way from the loving brother and father and son that we all know," end quote. Abdur also Says that the father they shared was Muslim and Jabbar's mother was Christian. And Jabbar was pretty much open to discussing and I guess embracing his Muslim faith. He didn't drink or party and he was pretty clear about that, but he also didn't actually really discuss religion a ton, although Jabbar did tell his half brother that he was upset about what was happening in Palestine. Now, at 5:18 a.m. on January 1st, the New Orleans Fire Department responded to a short term rental on Mandeville Street where they say Jabbar had placed accelerants and started a fire throughout the home, hoping to destroy evidence, but the fire ended up going out

• 7:07Stephanie Harlowe?

  and therefore law enforcement recovered bomb making materials and also what appeared to be a homemade rifle silencer. The FBI is now saying that Jabbar acted alone and there's no link between what happened in New Orleans and the explosion of a cyber truck outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas that same day. Now, what does seem to be a link between these two incidents is the rental service used to rent the vehicles in both incidents and that rental service is Turo.

• 7:37Derrick Levasseur?

  Yep.

• 7:38Stephanie Harlowe?

  Which I've also used. I used Turo once when I went to LA, so I think it's just, it's pretty, it's not, I don't think that the link says much of anything because it's a highly used app. I've used it myself, so I don't, I think it's just something that both of these individuals happened to use in their attacks.

• 7:56Derrick Levasseur?

  There's definitely a lot to talk about because this has a lot of people concerned other than just this, this incident and, and also the potential connection to the Trump Tower incident. But before we get into that, let's take a quick break. We'll be right back.

• 8:13Speaker 00

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• 8:42Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah, so there's a lot to talk about here and. People are trying to figure out what happened on Bourbon Street. I've been to Bourbon. I know you have as well. You went before me.

• 8:51Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yes, I love it.

• 8:52Derrick Levasseur?

  And it gets busy down there.

• 8:54Stephanie Harlowe?

  Oh, yes.

• 8:55Derrick Levasseur?

  And from what we were hearing, they have these like barriers that come up out of the ground that prevent vehicles from coming down that street and doing something like this. It's for the exact reason. And it's not necessarily for terrorists, but it's just so that no vehicle accidentally drives down there and does it.

• 9:13Stephanie Harlowe?

  Cause everybody's drunk.

• 9:14Derrick Levasseur?

  Right. This is what happened. So there is a video where you can see the police vehicle at the corner, right on Bourbon there where you see Jabbar's truck pull up and then it kind of goes around the police cruiser and then just guns it and goes down the road. And people are pissed for a lot of reasons, but also because those barriers weren't up. And from what I've heard, and it's kind of gone back and forth, they were actually performing maintenance on those barriers. And, and that might be true, but here's my problem. It's New Year's Eve. You know, this is coming up. If there's maintenance being performed and it's not absolutely necessary,

• 9:56Derrick Levasseur?

  maybe hold off to do it a day before or a day after, or not when it's going to be one of the business nights of the year.

• 10:04Stephanie Harlowe?

  They also had the Rose Bowl coming up, I think, right after that. So there was a ton of people.

• 10:09Derrick Levasseur?

  And maybe that's why they were working on it.

• 10:11Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah, I don't, I don't know.

• 10:12Derrick Levasseur?

  Regardless, and, and I know the argument's going to be, well, Derek, as soon as they are working on it, it's not up. They could have attacked then. And you're right. And it would have probably resulted in the same amount of casualties because Bourbon Street is always busy. Um, but that's one thing that I'm, you know, you get a little concerned about that this person was clearly doing some type of uh, counterintelligence and, and knew that maybe those barriers wouldn't be up. Maybe he saw, like you said, with the meta glasses while driving around. Uh, nights leading up to it where he knew that the barriers were currently being worked on.

• 10:43Stephanie Harlowe?

  Well, it was in October when he was, October 31st, he was there with his medic glasses.

• 10:48Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah. So how do we know how much other counterintelligence he did? And then you talk about some trips that he's taken out outside the country. And I think this is something that's commonly seen where. ISIS, just like cults, right? They, they go after people who are disgruntled, down in a bad place mentally, and they're looking for someone to take them in. And they're looking for something to latch on to. And it appears that he was radicalized. He was a military veteran at one point, and he was serving this country. And from everybody who knew him, he was just a normal guy. He, nobody had any issues with him, no red flags. And yet, as time progresses and life changes, divorces, failing businesses.

• 11:33Stephanie Harlowe?

  Political activities happening around the world.

• 11:36Derrick Levasseur?

  Financial strains. All that in totality, when someone comes along and starts to communicate with you and you have similar ideologies, they can manipulate you into believing something that's not true. And clearly, that's part of what happened here. And it's really raising a lot of concerns and a lot of interesting discussions. Do you know who Sean Ryan is? The podcast Sean Ryan? It's a pretty big podcast. He's a military guy. He has a lot of military people on the show. And when this all went down, I, I actually retweeted something from Sarah Adams. Sarah Adams is a former CIA agent. And she had been blowing the whistle on something like this

• 12:19Derrick Levasseur?

  for a long time, and nobody really paid her any attention. And essentially, what she's saying is that the CIA developed intelligence many months ago, maybe even a year ago. When, I mean, over a year ago, actually, where ISIS has been planning a, a mass casualty attack on the United States since Bin Laden was killed. So basically, as revenge for what happened to Bin Laden, they were going to kill more Americans than they even did during 9/11. And the way they were going to do that is basically, over the years, have numerous ISIS terrorist cells come into the country through the borders. Stationary, you know, stay low, don't do anything, blend in with society.

• 13:03Derrick Levasseur?

  And then when whatever cue was given, they were going to attack in multiple places throughout the country. Not necessarily by plane, but similar to how you saw in, in Israel, where, where basically everything went down over there, where Hamas attacked. Sarah Adams is saying that the Hamas attack was actually a warm-up. Was actually just practice to see how well it would go. And so if you go under that thought, that notion, basically what they would do around the country here is smaller attacks like what happened on Bourbon Street and what happened at Trump Tower, where they would curate firearms, bomb-making equipment, put those things together, get a couple cars, travel to high public traffic areas,

• 13:48Derrick Levasseur?

  and just kill as many people as possible until they're killed. And if they did that all over the country, considering what Sarah Adams is saying, it would be an unbelievable event because, according to her numbers, there are over a thousand terrorist cells in our country right now waiting for the Q to do this. And I believe that.

• 14:09Stephanie Harlowe?

  Oh, I a hundred percent believe that.

• 14:11Derrick Levasseur?

  And so I put it up on Twitter because it's extremely concerning to me. It's a huge fear because you don't need to hijack a plane to pull this off. Just someone who's crazy with a gun.

• 14:21Stephanie Harlowe?

  I mean, I think this also shows that you don't even need a gun, right?

• 14:25Derrick Levasseur?

  No.

• 14:25Stephanie Harlowe?

  Because he had a gun.

• 14:27Derrick Levasseur?

  Use a car.

• 14:27Stephanie Harlowe?

  He didn't use it. He used a car.

• 14:29Derrick Levasseur?

  That's right.

• 14:29Stephanie Harlowe?

  And we've seen this happen in other attacks before.

• 14:32Derrick Levasseur?

  So I've already told my family and friends, and you guys may think I'm crazy, but they will vouch for this. I've told them for the next couple of months, for a little while, there was just an event in Foxborough at Gillette Stadium where the Patriots play. Not happening. Not going. It's unfortunate, but I can't be everywhere and I wasn't able to go to that event. And even if I was, I wouldn't feel great about it, but those high-trafficked events with a lot of public where you can kill a lot of people in a very short period of time, that's where something like this is going to go down if it happens. And I'm not trying to fear monger. You guys can take this advice and throw it in the trash. I don't care.

• 15:13Derrick Levasseur?

  I feel better saying it because it's a real possibility. And I've always felt like... ISIS was gonna come back and do something to retaliate in regards to Bin Laden. They weren't gonna just let this slide. We took a lot of them out. We took a lot of Al Qaeda out, but they're rebuilding. And now they're back at full. It's been a long time since, since nine 11. And they've had the chance to build and we're not over there actively going after them anymore, which allows them time to train and, and recruit. And eventually I knew something was gonna happen. I hope that I'm wrong, but hearing from these individuals who are coming out and speaking publicly and blowing the whistle, really risking their own lives. It's, it's compelling to me at least, and it's concerning.

• 15:55Derrick Levasseur?

  And I, I hope it doesn't happen, but all I'm saying is this is what crime weekly news is all about, better protecting yourselves and your family. Take my advice, don't take my advice, that's fine. But I would avoid public events with a lot of people, whether it's a movie theater, a ballet, a mall, just be careful. If you're in, you're out. Obviously you have to go, but if you do, be vigilant, be aware of your surroundings, keep your AirPods out, keep your head on a swivel. If you see something that looks off, immediately report it and get the hell out of there as fast as you can. That's just my advice, but I know I went on a tangent there, but I think that's what this is really all about. We had 14 deaths, a lot of injuries. How do we try to prevent this from happening?

• 16:39Derrick Levasseur?

  I don't know if there is a way we prevent it. I'm just trying to avoid it happening to people that I care about and you guys as well.

• 16:46Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah, I mean, I don't, I don't go to highly trafficked areas in general.

• 16:49Derrick Levasseur?

  You really don't. Yeah, that's true.

• 16:51Stephanie Harlowe?

  I'm, I'm already like anxious just in general. And like I see people gathering in Times Square on New Year's Eve and it makes me feel like panicked. I don't, I don't like it, just like butted up against everybody. Anything could happen. I feel like you're sitting ducks at that point. And it's just sad that we live in a world now where you can't do things like that for, even for, you know, I don't like doing things like that, but for people who do, for people who enjoy that, for people who look forward to that, now they have to have another layer, level of, you know, fear about that. It's not just, oh, you might get mugged or, you know, it's one singular person, but there might be some person or people out there with greater purposes in their mind that you're gonna become collateral damage to, and it has nothing to do with you.

• 17:35Stephanie Harlowe?

  And it's just a terrifying reality that we live in now.

• 17:37Derrick Levasseur?

  And, and we always have, right? Since nine 11, I think we always have, but I do think we get a little complacent over time. And I think it's important to reel that back in. And remember that when you go out to these events, anything can happen. We still got to live our life, but just be careful. I know for me personally. I always carry regardless, but I'm even more cognizant of when I leave the house. Oh, do I have my gun on me? I'm just making sure because for me, I want to be in a position where I can at least defend myself. It may not work out for me, but at least I have a shot.

• 18:10Stephanie Harlowe?

  But at least you, yeah, at least you try.

• 18:11Derrick Levasseur?

  At least I have a shot. So it's crazy. And then like you said, you mentioned it before the break. We have this cyber truck incident and I want to talk about that, but let's take our last break and we'll be right back.

• 18:24Speaker 00

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• 19:09Speaker 00

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• 19:24Derrick Levasseur?

  All right, we're back and one more thing before we get into this Trump incident. I just want to say, don't take my advice on it. Go over to the Sean Ryan podcast, not, I don't know Sean Ryan, but he's been doing this a long time. Go watch the interview with Sarah Adams and come to your own conclusions. It's, it doesn't hurt to be informed. It's about an hour podcast. I definitely think it's worth a listen, but Stephanie, what can you tell us about this Trump attack? Because I know people are trying to connect the two.

• 19:48Stephanie Harlowe?

  I don't know if I would call it a Trump attack.

• 19:50Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah, the Trump, Trump tower attack, I guess, yeah.

• 19:52Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah. So it was a. A cyber truck explosion outside the Trump Las Vegas hotel in Nevada and authorities are investigating this as what they've called a possible act of terror. Sheriff Kevin McMahill of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department told reporters that investigators were looking into any possible connections to the deadly attack in New Orleans earlier Wednesday, they hadn't discovered any yet. It appears that the driver of the cyber truck, who I'm going to tell you about in a second, he pulled into the valley area of the hotel and then I believe it was like 15 to 20 seconds later, the vehicle exploded, the driver was killed and thankfully, it seems that this was the only fatality from that incident, even though seven bystanders did have minor injuries.

• 20:37Derrick Levasseur?

  Isn't that crazy too, by the way?

• 20:39Stephanie Harlowe?

  It's crazy because you know, this dude meant to take out a lot of people with him, honestly.

• 20:45Derrick Levasseur?

  Oh yeah.

• 20:45Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah.

• 20:46Derrick Levasseur?

  They say a lot, the cyber truck kind of contained a lot of it.

• 20:49Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah.

• 20:49Derrick Levasseur?

  Which is crazy.

• 20:50Stephanie Harlowe?

  I mean, it's from the future.

• 20:51Derrick Levasseur?

  I don't know if that's a good advertisement for a cyber truck, like it helps protect spread bombs, I don't, I don't know, but either way, it speaks, it speaks to the quality of the truck, I guess.

• 21:01Stephanie Harlowe?

  It is hideous. It's a hideous looking vehicle.

• 21:04Derrick Levasseur?

  How dare you, it is hideous.

• 21:05Stephanie Harlowe?

  It is hideous. I get a lot of satisfaction, actually, out of knowing that he didn't hurt anybody else besides himself.

• 21:12Derrick Levasseur?

  Right.

• 21:13Stephanie Harlowe?

  And it looks like when he pulled in, before the explosion went off, he took himself out first.

• 21:20Derrick Levasseur?

  That's what they're saying.

• 21:21Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah.

• 21:21Derrick Levasseur?

  That he had died from a single gunshot wound. They couldn't get him out of the car, he was so badly burned and he had shot himself once, but have you seen the video?

• 21:28Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yes.

• 21:29Derrick Levasseur?

  So there's a video that people are enhancing and you know, you're always going to have these conspiracies, I don't know if it's true or not, but I will say to the credit of the video, whether, I don't know if it's been doctored or not, in the video, it's like a close up of the driver's side window and you can actually see the bomb go off, like it's in like the passenger seat of the cyber truck and you see like the bomb go off, but right as the bomb is going off, you can kind of make out the, you know, the outline of the, of the bomber and it looks like he moves his head. Now, the counter to that is... He might have been shot and he just he's moving his head because people still do move. They have involuntary movements after they're dead. It happens all the time. But people are basically saying this proves there's much more to this story.

• 22:13Derrick Levasseur?

  Something was going on here. This guy did not kill himself. This is a deeper thing that we're not aware of.

• 22:20Stephanie Harlowe?

  He was in the truck that was going to explode. So even if he didn't shoot himself first.

• 22:25Derrick Levasseur?

  Right. He still blew himself up.

• 22:26Stephanie Harlowe?

  Killed himself. Yeah, I would say so.

• 22:29Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah.

• 22:30Stephanie Harlowe?

  Now, apparently, this suspect is an active duty Army soldier. His name is Matthew Livelberger of Colorado Springs, 37 years old. And like I said, his cause of death has been listed as a gunshot wound by suicide. Now, prior to him being identified, the police and officials found a lot of evidence, including credit cards in his name, similar tattoos. He purchased the weapon in the truck and an ID card, which were pointing to him as the individual. The fire and the explosion slowed down this identification process because, as you've said, physical injuries sustained by his body while he was in the explosion.

• 23:12Stephanie Harlowe?

  And like I said, they claimed that he shot himself in the head. A gun was found at his feet, according to Sheriff Kevin McMahon of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. Two guns, one handgun and a rifle, which were found in the vehicle, were burnt beyond recognition and had been purchased legally the prior Monday. So just a few days before. And after renting the vehicle, the Cybertruck, in Denver on Saturday, apparently Livelberger drove through various cities in Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona. Officials have noted that his location was tracked through Tesla charging stations. The vehicle first pulled into the Trump International Las Vegas Hotel Valet area just after 7:30 a.m. on Wednesday.

• 23:54Stephanie Harlowe?

  It then left the area. It drove along Las Vegas Boulevard. And then it returned to the valet area at about 8:39 a.m. And this is when it exploded within 17 seconds of its arrival, which is weird. You know, what was he doing? Why did he pull up there and then leave? Maybe did he pull up just to case it to see if anybody would approach his car? And then he went and got the bomb and did everything he needed.

• 24:15Derrick Levasseur?

  And maybe we're wrong. Maybe he was waiting until people cleared out. I know you had said something else. I don't, we don't know what was in his mind, but maybe he was trying to send a message without killing anybody? I don't know. Maybe it was too, it was too many people around.

• 24:26Stephanie Harlowe?

  Well, I mean, they found letters and things.

• 24:29Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah, there's a manifesto supposedly that was emailed as well.

• 24:32Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah, there's always, you know, supposedly this and supposedly that, but we, uh, we don't, we don't know.

• 24:39Derrick Levasseur?

  No.

• 24:39Stephanie Harlowe?

  What he wanted to do, but apparently he was a supporter of Donald Trump.

• 24:45Derrick Levasseur?

  Hmm.

• 24:45Stephanie Harlowe?

  His wife, who investigators spoke to in Colorado Springs, said that he'd been out of the house since around Christmas over a dispute about maybe alleged infidelity. So he was having marital problems, just like the suspect.

• 24:59Derrick Levasseur?

  It was apparently his son came back and didn't match his, wasn't his.

• 25:05Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah.

• 25:05Derrick Levasseur?

  Allegedly.

• 25:06Stephanie Harlowe?

  Allegedly, but damn, um, it's, it's, it's rough because it looks like.

• 25:13Derrick Levasseur?

  But you see what we're seeing here, a pattern?

• 25:14Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah, a pattern of people that are unhappy, life's not going well for them, and they want to exit stage left.

• 25:23Derrick Levasseur?

  They want to make, they want to go out with a bang, no pun intended.

• 25:25Stephanie Harlowe?

  They're saying, obviously, this was an isolated incident. There's no further threat to the community. Um, the police have said they don't believe anyone was helping, uh, this guy, and they think everything is safe now. And apparently, I guess he did leave some letters behind or some letters were found where he was just kind of, you know, complaining about, about everything, uh, that saying that the, the country is being run by weak individuals and he, I don't know, he just seems like, like we said, very, very unhappy with his life and very unhappy with, I guess, the way the world is going, which I think a lot of us can probably relate to that, but a lot of us, or the majority of us

• 26:09Stephanie Harlowe?

  would not solve it in this way.

• 26:11Derrick Levasseur?

  Right. Yeah, there's a lot of people trying to connect the two attacks, basically saying that they went to the same military base and both the offender from the first, from New Orleans and then this one. It's possible, but I think it's completely different. And here's my reasons why. When you talk about Bourbon Street, the attacker had an ISIS flag hanging from the back of their car. There was a clear intent there. It was to, uh, it was in the name of ISIS and they, and the only objective there was to kill as many people as possible. And in this case, there's no, there's no indication that it was for ISIS and it appears that maybe.

• 26:48Derrick Levasseur?

  There was an intent not to kill as many people. He could have just taken the cyber truck and ran people over. And yet he parked in front of this facility. He blows it up. It seems almost like it was more for a political statement than it was retaliation for something much bigger. Still tragic in its own right, but I'm glad to see that nobody was killed because of it. But again, if he was really trying to hurt or kill people, there were better ways to do it. And when you watch the videos, some of the videos specifically from the Tesla charging stations, they have videos of him where I didn't know this, but your cameras are basically recording you from your car as you're cleaning, which is a whole different can of worms. We'll get to that one day.

• 27:28Derrick Levasseur?

  But it's recording you as you're walking around your car and you can see him. He's like wiping the dust off his bumper and stuff. I just how do you, how are you wiping the dust off the bumper of a car you're going to blow up within a couple hours? It just doesn't make a lot of sense, but he's got the headlamp on. Seems like he was going through some things. Mad at the government, you know, very common story we hear and may have been mentally going through some stuff that he felt this was the only way to get his point across. And maybe his message was meant for his significant other or who knows? But maybe he felt like doing it in front of Trump Tower would get a lot of attention because obviously this is the incoming president. I don't know.

• 28:07Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yes. And I mean, the sheriff in Vegas, he says, listen, even, you know, the, the guy, what's his name? Lively's burger?

• 28:17Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah.

• 28:17Stephanie Harlowe?

  He, he says in these letters that the police are going through, this is a stunt. The sheriff says, quote, "In one of these documents we're going to release to you, you'll see he actually calls it a stunt. He was trying to get the attention of the American people because he was upset about a number of different things. But I'll let those writings speak for themselves."

• 28:37Derrick Levasseur?

  It's sad. This guy was a Green Beret. He actually was on a couple of TV shows where for like the top soldiers, like he did a couple of shows back in the day. So guy who was out there defending our country and lost his way and To get to this point where you feel like this is the only option, it's upsetting. It's unfortunate.

• 28:54Stephanie Harlowe?

  I'm sorry, this is, and listen, I don't know what this guy's motives were.

• 28:59Derrick Levasseur?

  No.

• 28:59Stephanie Harlowe?

  But obviously, what I think needs to, people need to wake up to is what we have. Are we, we're sending men and women out into active battle. And they're doing things in, in these scenarios that a civilian has no comprehension of. And then we expect them to come back into civilian life and adjust back into that. And what I think this speaks to is how America and its government abandons these people in the wake of them returning to normal life and expects them to just seamlessly integrate back in when they have done things that have fractured their brains. And I always worry about soldiers who have, you know, done things like the Green Berets and they've seen active battle and they've been in like, you know, overseas and have

• 29:44Stephanie Harlowe?

  had to kill people and have had to do things at the behest of their government that they cannot rationalize in their heads and their hearts. And then we bring them home and we say, all right, now go be a father, go be a brother, go be a husband, go out and work a nine to five. And we expect them to just do that when their brains have been broken and we do not offer them enough mental health services. We do not offer them enough support. It's very, that's what's very sad is we send these people out to protect their country, to protect us. And then when they come home, we act as if they're supposed to just carry on as business as usual when they've been to hell and back.

• 30:21Derrick Levasseur?

  Yeah.

• 30:21Stephanie Harlowe?

  Yeah.

• 30:22Derrick Levasseur?

  Experience things that none, no human being should have to experience.

• 30:24Stephanie Harlowe?

  Exactly.

• 30:25Derrick Levasseur?

  It's a sad story. I think the takeaway is just be careful out there. The spectrum of how careful you are is totally up to you. You will decide that for yourself and your family, but we just want everyone to be safe and we're hoping that this is not a pattern for Crime Weekly News in 2025. We know that we have a lot of domestic terrorists right here, homegrown, who, these mass shooters who are going out there doing shit like this as well. There's just, it seems like you can't go anywhere these days and it's unfortunate, but it's the reality of what we live in. So everyone just keep your head on a swivel, be safe out there. Stephanie, any final words for you?

• 30:59Stephanie Harlowe?

  No, I'm just, it's not a very hopeful.

• 31:02Derrick Levasseur?

  Especially as parents. It's tough. They've got to send their kids to school every day. We will be back later this week. Not going to spoil it for you. We have a new case coming. This is a local case here in Rhode Island. It's a case that I let Stephanie know about that I learned about many years ago when I was training as a young detective. And it's a sad but fascinating case. And we're going to dive into that later this week. So until then, everyone stay safe out there. We'll see you soon. Have a good night.

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