In the hours following the tragedy, his identity was the subject of speculation. These ended around 1 p.m. (local time), when the FBI revealed that the alleged perpetrator of the car-ramming attack in New Orleans was a man named Shamsud Din Jabbar.
At 3:15 a.m. (local time), this individual drove into the crowd coming to celebrate the New Year in the city’s French Quarter, in a Ford car. He killed at least ten people and injured 35 others. He then opened fire and shot two police officers. The police responded and shot him dead.
Shamsud Din Jabbar, aged 42, is not an immigrant – as rumors and statements by President-elect Donald Trump implied – but an American national originally from Texas.
In a video from 2020, he introduces himself as a real estate agent. ” Good evening. I am Shamsud Din Jabbar, property manager (…). I want to greet you and tell you a little about myself,” he says at the start of the video where he sells his services and praises his merits.
According to the FBI, the alleged assailant is a U.S. Army veteran. “We believe he left the military in a regular manner, but we are working to obtain all this information,” the FBI said during a press conference on January 1.
Link to the Islamic State?
“I was born and raised in Beaumont, Texas, and now live in Houston. I have stayed here all my life, with the exception of my trips for the army,” he says proudly in his presentation video. He says he worked for the army in the “human resources” and “IT” sector. He says he “learned” in the army “what it means to be reactive and take everything seriously (…) to make sure things go smoothly. So I applied those skills to my career as a real estate agent.”
According to his Texas criminal record, Shamsud Din Jabbar had already been charged in 2002 for a theft offense and in 2005 for driving with an invalid license, report several media outlets including NBC News and the New York Times.
His civil registry also indicates that he was married twice. The first union ended in 2012. A second divorce request was filed in 2021.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution newspaper reported that Shamsud Din Jabbar graduated from Georgia State University.
His brother evokes a “form of radicalization”
His brother, Abdur Jabbar, who spoke to the New York Times, speaks of him as “a sweetheart, a nice guy, a friend, very intelligent, attentive.”
It said the suspect had converted to Islam at a young age, emphasizing “what he did does not represent Islam. It is rather a form of radicalization.”
A childhood friend also contacted by the New York daily, Chris Pousson, remembers a person who “did not create problems, had good grades”.
Recounting having reconnected with him in 2017 via social networks, this retired soldier indicates that he “was never threatening, but you could see that he had become really intense about his faith”.
The man is suspected of having links to Islamist terrorism. An ISIS flag was found in the vehicle he used, the FBI reported, according to which the author “did not act alone”. Explosives were also found.