Former FBI special agent says Americans must ‘remain vigilant’ after Las Vegas, New Orleans attacks

A former FBI special agent is calling on Americans to use caution when attending major national events after two deadly incidents occurred back-to-back on New Year’s Day.

“Unfortunately, we’re going to continue to see these types of events happen, whether it’s radical Islamic terrorist events from ISIS or whether it’s mass shootings or whether it’s the individual CEO of UnitedHealthcare who he just lost his mind,” former FBI Special Agent and Fox News Contributor Nicole Parker explained to Fox News Digital.

“With a lot of these events coming up, there’s just a lot of activity that’s going to happen with large gatherings, large groups of people.”

Parker’s warnings come after a man, identified as Shamsud-Din Jabbar, plowed a truck into a crowd on Bourbon Street in New Orleans on New Year’s Day, killing more than a dozen people and injuring ten.

Matthew Livelsberger rented a Tesla Cybertruck in Denver, Colorado, which jumped in front of the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas on New Year’s Day. (Alcides Antunes/via REUTERS, left and Fox News, right.)

Hours after that deadly attack, a Tesla Cybertruck was jumped in front of the Trump Hotel Las Vegas, inducing fear and chaos to begin 2025.

Parker said that while these two events have been shocking and devastating, there has been an impending anticipation in our nation since the October 7, 2023 massacre of Hamas terrorist attacks on the Jewish State.

“There’s been a lot of activity leading up to this moment. I would say for our country, beginning on October 7, from a terrorism perspective, that’s when things definitely change,” said Parker.

“I think there was a lot of activity in the Middle East. A lot of these terrorist groups that people thought were gone, which frankly, they were. A lot of them were under the Trump administration. And then after the upheaval in the Middle East , I think it almost reignited a lot of activity and chatter,” he continued.

WHO IS MATTHEW LIVELSBERGER? WHAT WE KNOW ABOUT THE SUSPECTED TESLA CYBERTRUCK EXPLOSION

“I think in the United States, especially under the Biden administration, they’ve been so focused on domestic terrorism of violent extremists at home, white supremacy, saying it was the number one threat. There is a lot of activity. And as Christopher Wray said, alarms are going off.”

Parker said, unfortunately, after what we’ve seen happen in Las Vegas and New Orleans, it’s not a matter of if, it’s just a matter of when the next strike could hit.

“We have also dealt with the adversaries in our country. But in the next few weeks, the next two months, we will have many big, big events that will go down. And those are events where people who want to cause chaos and hurt the ‘others, they do it to get attention They want to cause as much destruction as they can,’ explained Parker, highlighting the Super Bowl, the College Football National Championship, which also falls on the same day. as well as The inauguration of President-elect Trump.

The FBI and the Las Vegas Police Department, along with other agencies, are continuing to investigate and determine what led to the person of interest, 37-year-old Matthew Livelsberger, a US Army special operations trooper. United from Colorado Springs, Colorado, jumped a Cybertruck in front of the Trump Las Vegas hotel on Tuesday morning.

INVESTIGATORS USE TATTOOS, PHOTOGRAPHS TO IDENTIFY TRUMP HOTEL CYBERTRUCK BLAST SUSPECTS

Several guests who were staying at the hotel when it all unfolded described to Fox News Digital the chaos and disorder that unfolded in the hours following the explosion.

“Actually, I had already taken my dogs to go to the bathroom, and then go back to my hotel. I fed them and I said: “okay, let’s go out”. I just missed the guy at 8:48, I mean, I walk right through that door with my dogs a couple of times a day,” Laurie Parent shared with Fox News Digital, narrowly missing the blast.

“In the morning when I woke up, you know, I heard something … it sounded like people were cleaning the windows. And I heard this popping sound. And I said, ‘What the hell is that?’ And then all of a sudden I heard all these police sirens and everything. So I looked out the window and I saw smoke coming out of a window because we were in the corner room on the top floor and the 23rd floor,” said Carlos Reyes . like inside the hotel.

LAS VEGAS POLICE SAYS CYBERTRUCK THAT DRIVES TO TRUMP HOTEL HAD FUEL CANS, LARGE FIREWORKS

1 dead, 7 injured after Tesla Cybertruck catches fire outside Trump hotel in Las Vegas (Getty Images/Alcides Antunes)

“It’s surreal. We (Chris and his wife) went there, and you can still see that (the Cybertruck) was on fire. A lot of smoke was going inside … it was scary,” Chris Petrotta, a guest of the hotel that was celebrating its birthday, described.

Parker countered that these attacks are important reminders to stay vigilant and be aware of your surroundings and reach out to law enforcement if you see or hear anything suspicious.

“Don’t forget that the public is part of the solution because many times when these individuals, whether they are terrorists or violent criminals or mass shooters, usually there is something called escape, where they give some sort of indication that I will do something before actually doing it,” Parker said.

Parker said that while Americans should not live in fear, they should exercise common sense when in major events and also in everyday life.

“We can’t let violent criminals win, we can’t live in fear. But you also have to be aware of your surroundings and listen to your gut. And unfortunately, I hate to say this, but this does not stop,” he said Parker. .

“This is just the society we live in, unfortunately. And you have to take certain measures to mitigate the risk, obviously.”

Investigators are examining the contents of a Tesla Cybertruck, which crashed in front of the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas on New Year’s Day. (Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Press Conference)

He added that while she is excited, like many Americans, for Trump to soon take office, things will not change overnight until real progress is made by elected officials and also in the FBI.

“Look, I like President Trump. But unfortunately, a lot of these things are going to happen under President Trump because these are people who are sitting here quietly. We never know when they’re going to implode. So all these people. what came across the border, I don’t know when they’re going to act, like September 11 you don’t know the day they’re going to operate, the day they’re going to decide this is when we’re going to do it “, Parker continued.

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The authorities are still there work to determine a motive and investigate whether Livelsberger’s actions were an act of terrorism.

“It’s not lost on us that it’s in front of the Trump building, which is a Tesla vehicle, but we have no information at this point that definitively tells us or suggests that it was because of this particular ideology,” said Spencer Evans . the Las Vegas FBI special agent in charge.

Stepheny Price is a writer for Fox News Digital and Fox Business. Story tips and ideas can be sent to stepheny.price@fox.com