Internet sleuths notice change in FBI special agent’s face after she ‘broke Bureau rule’ at New Orleans press conference

The FBI agent in charge of providing updates on the New Orleans terror attack apparently took her nose ring off after being slammed for it online, according to internet sleuths. 

Special agent Alathea Duncan was seen with the facial piercing during a morning press conference following the terror attack in the French Quarter, which left 14 dead on Wednesday. 

But by the next press conference, Duncan appeared without the nose jewelry, sparking comments on social media given that the FBI does not allow its agents to have facial piercings.

‘Special agent in charge, Aletha Duncan, shows up to the scene sporting a nose ring,’ read one post on X. ‘Can the FBI at least pretend to function as a serious law enforcement organization?’

‘Did FBI Special Agent Alethea Duncan remove her nose ring after her first press conference – when she said this was “not a terrorist event” – to her second press conference?’ wrote one popular X account.

Duncan was also criticized when she contradicted the claim by NOLA’s mayor that the attack was terrorist in nature.

‘This is not a terrorist event,’ Duncan claimed before the FBI confirmed that indeed the attack was a terror one. 

In a later press conference, Duncan appeared without the nose ring

According to the FBI, ‘Facial piercings are not permitted, except for female trainees, who are authorized to wear earrings.’

Army veteran Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, acted alone when he drove a pickup truck into a crowd of New Year’s revelers, the FBI said Thursday, reversing its position from a day earlier that he likely worked with others in carrying out the deadly attack, which officials say was an act of terrorism inspired by the Islamic State group.

The FBI also revealed that the driver, a US citizen from Texas, posted five videos on his Facebook account in the hours before the attack in which he aligned himself with IS and told viewers that he had joined the militant group before last summer.

‘This was an act of terrorism. It was premeditated and an evil act,’ said Christopher Raia, the deputy assistant director of the FBI’s counterterrorism division.

The attack killed 14 people, including an 18-year-old woman who had ambitions of becoming a nurse. Authorities initially put the death toll at 15, which included Jabbar, who was fatally shot in a firefight with police.

He was shot to death by police, and the FBI said Wednesday that it believed he did not act alone. Investigators found guns and what appeared to be an improvised explosive device in the vehicle, along with other explosive devices elsewhere in the French Quarter.

Officials fanned out to serve search warrants and spent hours at a Houston-area home thought to be connected to the investigation. But as of Thursday morning, no additional arrests were known to have been made, and it was unclear if the FBI was still actively looking for more suspects. 

The rampage turned festive Bourbon Street into a macabre scene of maimed victims, bloodied bodies and pedestrians fleeing for safety inside nightclubs and restaurants. In addition to the dead, dozens of people were hurt. 

There was also a deadly explosions outside a Las Vegas hotel owned by President-elect Donald Trump. Biden said the FBI was looking into whether the Las Vegas explosion was connected to the New Orleans attack but had ‘nothing to report’ as of Wednesday evening.