New Orleans truck attack: US army veteran who was ‘quiet and smart’ – what we know about suspect

The suspect in the New Orleans truck attack has been identified as army veteran Shamsud-Din Jabbar.

The FBI said he was a 42-year-old US citizen from Texas. Talking about himself in a work video in 2020, Jabbar said he was born and raised in the state.

Fourteen people were killed in the suspected terror attack, while about 30 more were injured.

New Orleans attack – follow latest

The attack

US army veteran Jabbar is believed to have driven a Ford pick-up truck into a crowd of people celebrating the New Year in Bourbon Street in the French Quarter of the southern US city.

Police said he was “hell-bent on creating the carnage and the damage that he did”.

“It was very intentional behaviour. This man was trying to run over as many people as he could,” said police chief Anne Kirkpatrick.

Superintendent Kirkpatrick said the driver, who swerved around barricades, shot and wounded two police officers from the vehicle after it crashed.

The officers were in a stable condition following the attack, she added.

Jabbar died in firefight

Jabbar was killed in a firefight with police following the attack, which happened at about 3.15am local time (9.15am UK time) on Wednesday, New Year’s Day.

The bureau said the truck appeared to have been rented.

It also said an IS flag, weapons, and a potential improvised explosive device (IED) were found in the vehicle.

Investigators recovered a handgun and an AR-style rifle after the shootout, a law enforcement official said.

Jabbar posted five videos on his social media accounts before the rampage, the FBI said.

In his first clip, he said he was initially planning to harm his own family and friends, but was concerned news headlines would not focus on the “war between the believers and disbelievers”, said Christopher Raia, deputy assistant director of the FBI’s counter-terrorism division.

Jabbar also stated that he had joined Islamic State (IS) “before this summer”, and provided a will, the counter-terrorism investigator added.

He also posted several videos on the evening of 31 December proclaiming his support for IS.

The FBI has been reviewing two laptops found at Jabbar’s home during a search, as well as three mobile phones.

Read more:
First victims named
How the atrocity unfolded

Jabbar was an army veteran

Jabbar served in the US army on active duty from 2007 to 2015, then in the army reserves from 2015 to 2020.

He was deployed to Afghanistan in 2009 and was a staff sergeant when he left with an honourable discharge in 2020.

Separately, he tried to enlist in the navy in 2004 but never actually shipped or began training.

A navy spokesperson said: “Our records show that a Shamsuddin Bahar Jabbar enlisted on 12 August 2004, in Navy Recruiting District Houston and was discharged from the Delayed Entry Programme one month later on 13 September 2004.

“He did not go to Recruit Training Command. The DOB matches. Because he did not serve in the navy, there is no additional information to add to the attached biography.”

NBC, Sky News’ US network partner, reported that Jabbar was a human resource specialist and information technology specialist from 2007 to January 2015 in the regular US army.

He was also an IT specialist in the army reserves between 2015 and 2020.

He also attended Georgia State University from 2015 to 2017, and graduated with a BBA in computer information systems, a spokesperson from the university told NBC.

Whilst at the university, Jabbar gave an interview to the student newspaper in which he said he struggled to adjust to civilian life after leaving the military.

Author of the article, Sean Keenan, recalled in The New York Times that Jabbar complained about the complexity of veterans trying to get funding for tuition and other educational benefits and how he found it tricky not to use military jargon at the time of the interview.

‘Quiet, smart, articulate’

A childhood friend said Jabbar’s alleged actions on New Year’s Day don’t align at all with the person he knew growing up in Beaumont, Texas.

“What happened today was a complete 180 of anything I ever knew about him,” Chris Pousson, told NBC.

Referring to him as “Sham”, Mr Pousson said he last spoke with Jabbar sometime in 2017 in 2018.

“He was very quiet, very reserved, smart, articulate,” he said.

He said he first met Jabbar in 1996 at Beaumont Middle School. They became instant friends and later attended the same high school. After graduating, the two lost touch when Jabbar joined the army and Mr Pousson joined the air force.

Several years later they reconnected on Facebook. It was then Mr Pousson noticed Jabbar’s posts focused on his Muslim faith.

Read more:
IS flag a stark reminder of dangerous extremist ideology
New Year’s carnage haunts New Orleans – but ‘Big Easy’ has suffered before

“It was always positive – peace be with you, uplifting type of stuff,” Mr Pousson said. “Nothing that he posted online that I saw was negative.

“I didn’t see this coming from a mile away.”

The suspect’s brother, Abdur Jabbar, told The New York Times that they last spoke two weeks ago. He said Jabbar did not mention any desire to go to New Orleans.

The 24-year-old said that they had both been brought up Christian, but his brother had converted to Islam a long time ago.

“As far as I know he was a Muslim for most of his life,” Mr Jabbar said.

“What he did does not represent Islam. This is more some type of radicalisation, not religion.”

According to Mr Jabbar, his brother had a six-year-old son and older daughters, The Times reported.

YouTube video

Jabbar is known to have appeared in a promotional video on YouTube in 2020 talking about his real estate business.

In the footage, he said he was born and raised in Beaumont, Texas. He said he served in the military for 10 years as a human resources and IT specialist, learning the importance of great service and taking everything seriously.

“I’ve taken those skills and applied them to my career as a real estate agent, where I feel like what really sets me apart from other agents is my ability to be able to… be a fierce negotiator,” he said, encouraging clients to give him a call.

It is also known Jabbar had been working at professional services giant Deloitte since 2021.

In a statement confirming his employment, the company, which provides audit, consulting, financial advisory, risk advisory, tax, and legal services, told NBC it was shocked to learn of its connection to Jabbar.

“Like everyone, we are outraged by this shameful and senseless act of violence and are doing all we can to assist authorities in their investigation,” Deloitte managing director Jonathan Gandal said.

Possible links to Las Vegas explosion

Just hours after the attack in New Orleans, a rented Tesla Cybertruck exploded outside Donald Trump’s hotel in Las Vegas.

One person inside the vehicle died and seven others suffered minor injuries.

FBI officials and Las Vegas sheriffs on Thursday said they believe the man driving the rented car was 37-year-old US army soldier Matthew Livelsberger, from Colorado, although this was still to be officially confirmed through DNA.

Speaking during a news conference in Las Vegas, Clark County Sheriff Kevin McMahill said his force was “not ruling out” links between the two incidents – despite the FBI earlier appearing to downplay any possible connection, saying there was “no definitive link” at this stage during a separate news conference in New Orleans a few hours earlier.

“It’s an interesting thing in these kind of investigations that, if these turn out to be simply similarities, (they are) very strange similarities to have,” Mr McMahill said.

Both Jabbar and Livelsberger had served at a base formerly known as Fort Bragg, a centre in North Carolina that is home to special forces command.

Law enforcement officers were also looking into the fact both men used the Turo car app to rent the vehicles involved in both incidents.

Previous arrests

Jabbar was arrested in Texas in 2002 for theft, classed as a misdemeanour, and he was fined $100 by a court.

He was also arrested in the same state in 2005 for driving with an invalid licence, also classed as a misdemeanour, and was fined $100 by a court.

Twice married

Civil records show Jabbar was married twice, with his first marriage ending in 2012, NBC reported.

A petition for a second divorce was initiated in 2021.

Public records show that in 2020, Jabbar’s then wife filed a motion for a temporary restraining order against him.

The order stated that both parties should not engage in “intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly causing bodily injury to the other party or to a child of either party” or “threatening the other party or a child of either party with imminent bodily injury”.

The divorce was finalised in 2022. Jabbar and his ex-wife were granted joint custody of their child.

A woman who identified herself to NBC as Jabbar’s sister-in-law and asked to not be named said relatives in Texas were in shock when they heard the news.

It makes “no sense,” she said. “He’s the nicest person I’ve ever known.”

“I really don’t know what happened,” she added. “He was a good man. He takes care of his children and everything.”

FBI says other possible explosives found

Two other potential IEDs were also located in the French Quarter and were made safe, the FBI said.

The historic area is known for attracting large crowds with its music and bars.