US citizen and suspect in the New Orleans terror attack is a father-of-two and military veteran who once bragged how he took “everything seriously”.
Shamsud-Din Jabbar 42, was born and raised in Dallas but appears to have become radicalized by Islamic fanatics in the months before his massacre on New Year’s Eve.
His life – at first glance at least – offered few clues as to why he would affix an ISIS flag to his truck and ram through dozens of people, killing 15 and injuring at least 30 more.
At a press conference New Orleans Police Chief Anne Kirkpatrick said Jabbar drove around a police car and onto the pavement to access Bourbon St, one of the busiest streets in the city.
“This man was trying to run over as many people as he possibly could,” she said.
Jabbar was “hell-bent on creating the carnage and the damage that he did”, the Supt. added.
Superintendent of New Orleans Police Anne Kirkpatrick speaks to the media during a press conference on January 1, 2025 in New Orleans, Louisiana. (Photo: Chris Graythen/ Getty Images)Public records show that Jabbar’s life seemed unremarkable: he lived in a mobile home in North West Houston and has two daughters, aged 10 and 15.
According to his now-deleted LinkedIn profile, he served in human resources and IT in the US Army and Army Reserves, as well as the US Army Corps of engineers, for a decade.
The i Paper has contacted the Department of Defence for his service record.
More recently Jabbar worked as a real estate agent and is understood to have set up a property company with his mother called the Midas Group.
Jabbar appeared in a video on YouTube for the company speaking in a thick Texas accent in an office with a sign in the background a “Disciplined People”.
Among the qualities of such a person is that they “build routines” and “go all in”.
In the video, Jabbar says he was born and raised in Beaumont, Texas.
He says: “I have been here all my life with the exception of traveling for the military where I spent 10 years where I learned the meaning of great service and what it means to be responsive and take everything seriously, dotting eyes and crossing the ts to make sure they don’t go off without a hitch”.
What sets him apart from other real estate agents is “my ability to be able to be a fierce negotiator”, Jabbar says.
“I’m going to take every ounce of energy putting it into negotiating for you to get the best deal you can possibly get”, he says.
Educated at Georgia State University, Jabbar has a large family in the Houston area but also has family in Atlanta.
A black flag with white lettering lies on the ground rolled up behind a pickup truck that a man drove into a crowd on Bourbon Street in New Orleans(AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)Court documents seen by the The i Paper show that he has gone through a series of court battles with his ex-wife Nakedra over their two daughters.
The records, from Harris County, Texas, show that in 2012 the former couple had joint custody of the children and the girls would split the holidays between them.
At the time Jabbar had an income of $3,115 a month and he was ordered to arrange health insurance for both the girls.
He was ordered to pay $525 per month to Nakedra until his children turned 18.
At the time he gave his address at Fort Bragg, the military base in North Carolina.
The following year his child support payments were increased to $825 per month on account of his income going up to $3,990 per month,
There was another adjustment in 2018 when his income had reached $5,983 per month and he was ordered to pay $1,091 per month.
There appear to have been further disputes as the case was due to go to trial but that effort was dismissed in 2022.
Jabbar has also been involved in petty crime: in 2002 he was arrested for theft and released under community supervision. He has also been arrested for driving with a suspended license.
Yet Jabbar also appears to have had a charitable side and his LinkedIn states that he volunteered at the Salvation Army.
He also worked at the Shoebox Project at United Way of Greater Atlanta, a nonprofit which helps children, and a local church.
The FBI is now trying to work out what could have led him to radicalisation and sympathies for ISIS.
FBI investigators arrive at the scene where the white Ford F-150 pickup truck that crashed into a work lift (Photo by Matthew HINTON / AFP)An FBI intelligence bulletin has reportedly said that surveillance footage captured three men and a woman placing one of multiple improvised explosive devices in the French Quarter in New Orleans, meaning that Jabbar could be part of a potential cell of terrorists.
A photo from the scene shows him wearing combat fatigues and lying topless on Bourbon St, with blood pouring from wounds sustained during a shootout with police.
Weapons and improvised explosive devices were found in his rented white Ford F-150 pickup truck and the ISIS flag on the back.
The devices contained coils and nails, sources told ABC News, in a chilling throwback to the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013 where two terrorists put pressure cookers filled with shrapnel at the finish line.
With the hunt on for the Jabbar’s co-conspirators, the FBI will be wanting to avoid this one ending the same way as Boston – where the suspects engaged in a shootout with police through residential streets.
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