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New Orleans driver didn't cross Texas border two days before attack | Fact check

Hannah Hudnall   Paste BN
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The claim: New Orleans attacker crossed southern border two days earlier

A Jan. 1 Instagram post (direct link, archive link) shows a picture of a white truck surrounded by more than a dozen police officers.

"The person behind the terrorist attack in New Orleans last night cross (sic) the Southern Border at the Eagle Pass crossing 2 days ago," reads text within the post, which was originally shared on X.

The Instagram post garnered more than 500 likes in a day. Other versions of the claim were shared on Instagram and Threads.

Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene shared the claim on X, citing a Fox News report. And President-elect Donald Trump implied the attacker entered the country illegally in a Truth Social post, referencing the attack while saying, "the criminals coming in are far worse than the criminals we have in our country."

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Our rating: False

There is no evidence the truck or attacker recently crossed the southern border. Fox News initially reported that the New Orleans attacker's truck passed the U.S. southern border two days before the deadly assault but later issued a correction that it had crossed into Eagle Pass, Texas, in November 2024. The attacker was a U.S. citizen.

Claim about attacker's immigration status based on erroneous news report

Authorities identified 42-year-old Shamsud Din Jabbar as the driver who intentionally rammed his truck into a New Orleans crowd about 3 a.m. Jan. 1. The attack killed 14 people and injured dozens more. Jabbar was fatally shot by police.

Fox News erroneously reported later on Jan. 1 that the attacker's truck passed the southern border into Texas two days earlier. In the initial report, which Taylor Greene included in her X post, a Fox News anchor said, "According to federal sources, the suspect drove a truck with that Texas license plate ... through Eagle Pass, Texas, two days ago." Minutes later a reporter hedged from that report, saying it was unclear who was driving the truck.

Fox News then issued a correction the same day on air and on its live update page, reporting that the vehicle had passed through the border on Nov. 16, more than six weeks before the attack.

"Editor's Note: An earlier version of this blog post stated the truck had crossed into Eagle Pass two days ago," the update reads. "Sources tell FOX there was some initial confusion on their end about the date."

A Fox News correspondent reiterated this the next day, correcting Trump's Truth Social post in a Jan. 2 broadcast and reporting that the truck had been driven across the border on Nov. 16, 2024, by a different driver.

FBI officials said Jabbar rented the vehicle on Dec. 30, 2024, in Houston before driving to New Orleans on Dec. 31. The car rental app Turo confirmed in a Jan. 1 statement that the driver used the app to rent the truck.

Trump was among the people who interpreted the initial border crossing report as evidence the attacker was in the country illegally, but that's not the case. Jabbar is a U.S. citizen born in Texas who previously served in the U.S. Army.

Fact check: Some school shooters faced terrorism charges, contrary to social media claims

Paste BN reached out to Greene and the user who shared the post for comment but did not immediately receive a response. Steven Cheung, a Trump spokesperson, failed to provide evidence to back up the claim.AFP, Snopes and PolitiFact also debunked versions of the claim.

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