New Orleans attacker: How false claims about the suspect spread

Wooden crosses bearing the photos of victims are seen at a makeshift memorial, two days after a US Army veteran drove his truck into the crowded French Quarter, in New Orleans, on New Year's Day [Octavio Jones/Reuters]

Shamsud-Din Jabbar, the 42-year-old suspected driver in the New Year’s truck attack in New Orleans, was a United States citizen and US Army veteran.

But within hours of the attack – which killed 15 people and is being investigated as an act of terrorism – President-elect Donald Trump, Republican leaders and social media influencers speculated that Jabbar entered the US illegally.