Gage Goulding - Reporter, KPRC 2 Joins Houston's Morning News

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
All right, New Orleans is a party town, is a
festive place. They were getting ready for the Sugar Bowl. Yes,
so they ended up postponing that until today after an
ISIS inspired terrorist attack done by Houston man. That was
a little bit shocking to find that out. Joining us
from KPRC too, our television partner is reporter Gauge Goulding.
He is in the Crescent City. Gage. I saw a

(00:21):
report from you earlier on KPRC too. It looked like
you were near Bourbon Street anyway, and i'd see that
the police stape is still up. So is that still closed?

Speaker 2 (00:31):
Yeah, hey, Jimmy, good morning. We are right. I mean
we are right on Bourbon Street. We're being held off
actual Bourbon Street proper if you will, but I mean
it's fifteen feet away. As they continue to clean up.
The police stape is physically gone, as they've come through
this area in the last hour and picked up all
the pieces, all the confetti and all that, and taken
down all the police stape as well. But they're still

(00:53):
holding us back. There are barricades up for as far
as the I could see. The Only reason we're so
close because we just happened to be saying at the
hotel right next door.

Speaker 1 (01:01):
Okay. One of the reports that we're getting mixed news on,
and maybe you can help clode this up for us,
is the report the cliff just had about three or
four possible additional suspects. We had a guest, a former
FBI special agent on with us about half an hour
or so ago. He said he had heard that maybe
they might have just been people were in the wrong
place at the wrong time that we're passing by. Have

(01:22):
you heard anything more about the potential for more suspects
in this attack.

Speaker 2 (01:28):
Yeah. I think as these things develop, it it takes time,
and time is the key thing there, because they change.
You know. The first press conference they gave, the FBI
said this wasn'tn active tear. A couple hours later they're
saying this was an active terror. They are still going
with the notion that Jabbar did not act alone, that
they had help in some way, shape or form. I

(01:50):
know that they were looking at residences here in New
Orleans at that Airbnb, but also in the Houston area.
There was a massive spot situation that was connected to
this situation. So I think they're they're trying to flush
out all their angles, if you will. They're trying to see,
you know, who is truly innocent, who is truly just
in the wrong place, wrong time, or just happens to

(02:11):
be related and those that are, you know, potentially involved
in this. You know, there is reports that I think
the New Yeork's New York Times excuse me, had it
that there was reports that, you know, the last year
or so, he started becoming very radical as he you know,
transitioned to the Islamic belief and you know, family members
started kind of pushing him away. So I would imagine

(02:32):
that those folks are going to be having lengthy discussions
with the FPI, But that doesn't necessarily mean that they're
involved in this, even though they might be to the
same roof for you know, share family ties.

Speaker 1 (02:43):
Gage Gouldings with us is reporter KPRC to our television
partner here in Houston. As we learn more about this guy,
it would appear he was he was troubled, He had
two ex wives, had some financial problems and some issues,
and as you alluded to, his social media postings became
more and more threatening over the course of time. Are

(03:05):
we going to end up looking at this and our
police officials is going to end up looking at this
and say, here's here's another guy that slipped through the
cracks that we should have known something about and done
something about.

Speaker 2 (03:16):
You know. I spoke with forensic studies expert out of
Florida Golf Coast University, doctor David Thomas Chestra. He's a
veteran law enforcement expert with dozens of years on the forest,
so very very very intelligent man. And I asked, unless,
I say, you know, how does something like this happen
in twenty twenty four, in the age of technology and
the age of surveillance that we know about and all

(03:38):
the stuff that we don't know about as regular US citizens?
I said, how did this happen? And he said, you know,
those federal agents are gonna be asking the same thing.
Not only you know New Orleans police, the locals here
that you know, physically let this happen, physically let somebody
slip past the barricades, but also on the federal level too, Right,
how did the FBI? How did Homeland Security not practice

(03:59):
person obviously something the ball was dropped somewhere, And I'm
not pointing blame, right, and I don't think he was either,
but I think there's a going to be a significant,
you know, investigation into that is, how did this happen?
And you know, what can what can we do to
look at it in the future. And the one thing
that was really interesting to me he said, you know,
he you know, Thomas, he hated to admit it, but

(04:20):
he said, you know, there are probably thousands of people
just like this living in the United States right now.
Is just trying to find them. And it's impossible to
survey every single piece of technology, every single person. That
just would be a daunting task.

Speaker 1 (04:31):
Yeah, pretty impossible to prevent it all, that's for sure. Gage,
thanks for your time this morning, Sure do appreciate it.
That's reporter Gage Goulding from KPRC too, joining us