The footage is bone-chilling.
FPV Terrorism
The FBI has released extensive first-person footage recorded by Shamsud-Din Jabbar, the man who drove a rented pickup truck into a crowd in New Orleans on New Year’s Day, killing 14 people.
Some of the footage was recorded on a pair of Meta’s Ray-Bans smart glasses, catapulting the gadget into the center of that grisly scene, which ended in a police shootout resulting in Jabbar’s death.
The recordings show Jabbar walking through the streets of New Orleans ahead of the attack, even giving us a close glimpse of his face as he peers into a mirror while wearing the glasses. Security footage shows him wearing the glasses while preparing for the unconscionable act, likely allowing him to record the scene without drawing much attention.
It’s a bone-chilling and intimate perspective into the mind of a killer, facilitated by a pair of critically acclaimed smart glasses that turned into a sleeper hit for Meta last year.
Attack Planning
Though he seems to have used them during planning, Jabbar didn’t turn on the glasses during the attack.
“Meta glasses appear to look like regular glasses but they allow a user to record video and photos hands-free,” FBI New Orleans Special Agent Lyonel Myrthil told reporters, as quoted by Gizmodo. “They also allow the user to potentially livestream through their video. Jabbar was wearing a pair of Meta glasses when he conducted the attack on Bourbon Street. But he did not activate the glasses to livestream his actions that day.”
Meta was caught off guard by the glasses’ popularity, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg claiming that they were a “bigger hit sooner than we expected” during a July earnings call, with demand “still outpacing our ability to build them.”
That’s despite several companies, including Google and Snapchat, releasing similar products in years past, both of which fared far worse.
A tiny LED light on the front of the glasses indicates whether somebody is using them to record video. But it’s easy to cover up, and experts have since warned that the specs could easily be used to invade the privacy of others.
And as it turns out, that could also make them a useful tool in the arsenal of a terrorist.
“From a reconnaissance perspective, you’re really getting a sense of the eyeline and eyesight and all the things that you’re going to want to look out for if you’re trying to plan an attack,” strategic counterterrorism expert Sam Hunter told NBC News. “It’s starting to get more and more into the footage of this is what it actually looks like and feels like when you’re in that environment.”
“I would not be surprised if you see versions of them or folks using them for attack planning in the future, again because they’re so discreet in terms of capturing that footage,” he added.
More on the glasses: Facebook Proud of New Glasses That Let You Record People Without Them Knowing