New Orleans ramming suspect Shamsud-Din Jabbar ‘radicalised by ISIS after failed business, marriages’
Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a US citizen from Texas, was living in a trailer park and had recently converted to Islam after racking up debts with a failed business and two broken marriages.
Shamsud-Din Jabbar, the US military veteran who killed 15 people in a terrorist attack in New Orleans, appears to have been radicalised by ISIS after struggling with two failed marriages and financial problems.
The 42-year-old IT specialist and former real estate broker was dressed in body armour and military fatigues as he drove a pick-up truck carrying firearms and explosives through crowds of revellers celebrating the new year on Bourbon Street.
Armed with a handgun and an AR-style rifle, he exited his vehicle after it crashed and engaged in a firefight with police officers, shooting two of them before he was killed. The FBI have confirmed that an Islamic State flag was attached to a pole on the vehicle’s trailer hitch.
“The FBI is working to determine the subject’s potential associations and affiliations with terrorist organisations,” the FBI said in a statement.
They are also investigating any accomplices that he may have had. “We do not believe Jabbar was solely responsible,” Alethea Duncan, the FBI’s assistant special agent in charge, said.
It is not clear if Jabbar was directly linked to any broader Islamic State infrastructure or was just inspired by its propaganda but President Biden confirmed Jabbar’s links with the Islamist extremist group responsible for deadly attacks around the globe.
“Mere hours before the attack, he posted videos on social media indicating that he was inspired by Isis, expressing a desire to kill,” Mr Biden said in a televised statement. Photos from the scene in the immediate aftermath show a bearded Jabbar in camouflage trousers lying dead next to the truck.
The images were in stark contrast to the polished businessman promoting his real estate enterprise on a YouTube video in May 2020. Jabbar introduced himself as a property manager at the Houston-based real estate firm, Blue Meadow Properties.
Speaking confidently in an office adorned with modern art prints and inspirational posters, Jabbar said he was “born and raised in Beaumont, Texas” and now lived in Houston. He said he spent ten years as a human resources specialist and IT specialist in the US military.
“I learnt the meaning of great service and what it means to be responsive and take everything seriously, dotting Is and crossing Ts to make sure that things go off without a hitch,” he said in the video.
Is this the YouTube channel of Shamsud Din Jabbar?
— Lucky (@TheMagaHulk) January 1, 2025
The video states he is a property manager for Blue Meadow Properties.
He also mentions he was born and raised in Texas and served 10 years in the military as a Human Resources/ IT Specialist. pic.twitter.com/1oC458k2sY
According to a record of Jabbar’s military service obtained by NBC News, he served on active duty in the US Army from 2006 to 2015, and was deployed to Afghanistan in 2009.
Jabbar, an administration clerk, then spent five years in the army reserves before he was honourably discharged in 2020 with the rank of staff sergeant.
He also tried to enlist in the Navy in 2004 but failed to attend a recruit training programme.
Jabbar had two daughters, one a teenager and the other a young adult, and seems to have been radicalised over the past year.
Dwayne Marsh, who is married to Jabbar’s second wife, told The New York Times that the suspect had begun to convert to Islam in the last year and was “being all crazy”. He added that Jabbar’s daughters were “a mess” after the attack.
The New York Post reported that at the time of the attack, Jabbar was living in squalor in a Houston trailer park, with sheep and goats wandering around his yard.
US officials also told The Post Jabbar visited Egypt last year for 10 days.
Court documents obtained by The New York Times suggested that Jabbar had financial and personal struggles. They said that he had been married twice, and was involved in divorce proceedings in 2022 which left him at risk of losing his home.
“It is past due in excess of $27,000 and in danger of foreclosure if we delay settling the divorce,” he wrote in a letter to his wife’s lawyer. He added that the real estate company he had founded had lost more than $28,000 in the previous year.
Public records show that Jabbar had criminal convictions for minor infractions including theft and driving while his licence was suspended.
Shaneed Chantil Jabbar, one of his ex-wives, took out a temporary restraining order against him in 2020, court documents show. She filed for divorce in a court in Fort Bend County, Texas, citing irreconcilable differences.
It is not clear when Jabbar travelled to New Orleans or where he was staying, but a fire at an Airbnb rental property in the city was being investigated for potential links to the attack.
A damaged pickup truck and a rolled-up black flag with white lettering at the scene of a vehicle-borne attack.
Police said that Jabbar, who was driving a rented white Ford truck, aimed to cause as many casualties as possible as he ploughed through people celebrating the New Year.
The truck had a Texas licence plate and law enforcement officers told Fox News that the vehicle had crossed from Mexico into Texas on November 16.
Improvised explosive devices were also found at the scene, and the New Orleans city council member Helena Moreno told the local station WWL-TV that the suspect had explosives in an ice chest inside the truck.
Jabbar was armed with a handgun and an AR-style rifle, and any military background will be investigated as the FBI try to establish the planning and motive for the attack.
There have long been concerns about radicalisation in the US military and of military veterans, although concerns are usually focussed on far-right actors.
On his YouTube video — the authenticity of which has not been verified by police — Jabbar said that he was born and raised in Beaumont, Texas, but had spent most of his life in Houston.
His background will be closely scrutinised. Before any official information was released, members of Donald Trump’s team attempted to link the attack to migration, with Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr writing on X: “Biden’s parting gift to America — migrant terrorists.”
President Biden refused to immediately comment on the identity of the attacker, saying: “I’m not going to say anything until I get all the facts in front of me.”
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