An American citizen and US Army veteran drove his rented pickup truck into a crowded New Orleans street early Wednesday morning, killing at least 15 people and injuring dozens more in what the FBI is investigating as a terrorist attack.
Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar, s 42-year-old Texan, was killed in a shootout with police after he got out of his truck on Bourbon Street and opened fire on police officers, as CrimeOnline previously reported. Two police officers were reportedly wounded.
A US official told The Associated Press that Jabbar had been an information technology specialist in the Army until 2015. Investigators said they don’t believe Jabbar acted alone. They say surveillance video shows three men and a woman placing homemade bombs in connection with the vehicle attack.
The FBI also said that an Islamic State flag was found in the truck, which had a Texas license plate and was rented via the app Turo, which connects drivers with vehicle owners.
“We are heartbroken to learn that one of our host’s vehicles was involved in this awful incident,” Steve Webb, the company’s vice president of communications, said in an email. “We are actively partnering with the FBI. We are not currently aware of anything in this guest’s background that would have identified him as a trust and safety threat to us at the time of the reservation.”
Police say Jabbar drove around a police car that was blocking traffic onto Bourbon Street an onto a sidewalk at about 3:15 a.m. Investigators are at his home in Houston.
WVUE aired a video showing the pickup truck turning onto Bourbon Street at the start of the attack:
Video shows the moment the FBI says Shamsud Din Jabbar raced onto a packed Bourbon Street from Canal Street in a pickup truck with Texas plates and an ISIS flag. https://t.co/P0iWiTX30Z pic.twitter.com/hmeB1tUjpc
— FOX 8 New Orleans (@FOX8NOLA) January 1, 2025
Investigators also said that guns and explosives were found in the truck.
Who was Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar?
Officials said Jabbar was on active duty in the US Army from March 2007 and January 2015, serving as an information technology specialist, CNN reported. He deployed to Afghanstan once, in 2009 to 2010, and left the service as a staff sergeant after serving in the Army Reserve until July 2020.
He received an associate degree from Central Texas College in 2010 and a bachelor’s from Georgia State University. Both degrees were related to computer science. He obtained a real estate license in Texas in 2018, but that license expired in 2023.
Court records show that he has divorced twice, with his first wife suing him 2012 over child support. His second wife requested and received a temporary restraining order in 2020. The order barred Jabbar from threats or physical harm against his ex-wife and children.
Further records show that Jabbar was likely struggling financially in recent years. In a 2022 divorce filing, he said he was $27,000 in arrears on his house payments and could not afford it.
Most interesting, however, were a series of videos that appear to have been recorded as he drove from his home in Houston to New Orleans, multiple officials briefed on the investigation told CNN. In those videos, Jabbar refers to a divorce and says that he had planned to gather his family together for a “celebration” in order to kill them. But, he said in a video, he changed his mind and joined the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), sayin he had several dreams about doing so.
Sugar Bowl postponed, some victims identified
The NCAA quarterfinal game between the University of Georgia and Notre Dame, scheduled for Wednesday night in the Sugar Bowl at the Superdome, was postponed until Thursday night in light of the atttack, WDSU reported.
Identifications of the victims are likely to take several days, the Orleans Parish Coroner’s Office said, but family members have been releasing some identifications.
St. Thomas More Catholic High School said that Tiger Bech, 28, a former football and lacrosse standout, had died in the attack. Bech also played football at Princeton University.
Mississippi 18-year-old Nikyra Dedeaux was also confirmed killed, WDSU said.
The AP reported that Reggie Hunter, a 37-year-old father of two from Baton Rouge, was also killed.
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[Featured image: 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, killing and injuring a number of people, early Wednesday morning, Jan. 1, 2025. The FBI said they recovered an Islamic State group flag, which is black with white lettering, from the vehicle. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert). Inset: Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar/FBI via AP]
