The FBI assistant special agent in charge who told the media and the public the New Orleans attack was “not a terrorist event” has been reassigned, Fox News has learned.
Multiple sources tell Fox News that FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge Alethea Duncan has been temporarily reassigned following her initial press conference in which she stated: “This is not a terrorist event.”
It was terrorism.
After the original presser, the FBI put out a statement using the word “terrorism.” Attorney General Merrick Garland and President Biden also used the word “terrorism” in their statements.
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No other details were offered about Duncan’s new position, but she is still with the FBI.
The FBI declined to comment.
Authorities say that Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42,had an ISIS flag in his truck when he drove it into a crowd full of New Year’s revelers on Bourbon Street, killing 14 and injuring dozens of others. After plowing through the crowd, he jumped out of his truck and began shooting at local police officers, who returned fire and killed him.
Jabbar was pronounced dead at the scene.
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The FBI said Jabbar bought two coolers that he later used to conceal IEDs on Bourbon Street and that he drove from his native Houston to New Orleans on Dec. 31 to carryout his planned attack.
In the hours after the chaos unfolded on Bourbon Street on New Year’s Day, Duncan spoke at a press conference and declared the attack was not connected to terrorism.
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“We’ll be taking over the investigative lead for this event. This is not a terrorist event,” Duncan said during the presser.
During that same press conference, however, the mayor of New Orleans told the media and public that the city did in fact suffer a terror attack.
“Know that the city of New Orleans was impacted by a terrorist attack. It’s all still under investigation,” Mayor LaToya Cantrell, a Democrat who has served in the role since 2018, said at the presser.
The FBI previously told Fox News Digital that three different statements were released by the Bureau on the day of the attack.
Duncan also said in subsequent press conferences that the attack is being investigated as an act of terror.
Fox News Digital’s Michael Ruiz and Emma Colton contributed to this report.
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