A «lone wolf» with a past inUS armywho became radicalized in recent years and joined theIsis before last summer, who had initially planned to target family and friends after a spiraling crisis, between divorces And debts. It is the profile outlined by FBI and friends of Shamsud-Din Jabbarthe 42-year-old Texan killed by police after mowing down dozens of people (the toll is 14 deaths) who were celebrating New Year’s Eve in New Orleans with his rental pickup flying the flag of Caliphate.
The five videos posted on better illuminate his intentions Facebook between 1.29am and 3.02am on January 1st, shortly before the massacre, while he was driving from Houston – where he lived alone in a Muslim neighborhood he had moved to a year ago – to New Orleans. In the first clip, Jabbar explains that he had previously planned to harm his family and friends, but was worried that media coverage would not focus on the “war between believers And unbelievers“, as reported by the Deputy Assistant Director of the FBI Christopher Raia in a press conference.
The attacker also claims to have joined ISIS before last summer and to have provided his last will and testament. Other elements will probably come from the three cell phones and come on two laptops linked to him and recovered by investigators. In a video from a few years ago he himself says that he was born and raised in Beaumont, Texas, and that he lives in Houston. «I have stayed here all my life, with the exception of trips to thearmy», he says, proudly boasting his military past. In this video he poses in front of a screen on which the word « is written in large lettersDiscipline». Jabbar says he “learned” in the army “what it means to be reactive and take everything seriously (…) to make sure things go well.”
According to the Pentagonwas in the military from March 2007 to January 2015, with a mission in Afghanistan from February 2009 to January 2010 that earned him the War on Terrorism Medal created for soldiers sent to Iraq and Afghanistan after 11 September. He then entered the reserve from 2015 to 2020, with the rank of sergeant major. In those years, from 2015 to 2017, he attended Georgia State University obtaining a bachelor’s degree in informatics. From 2021 to 2024 he had worked for the company Deloitte et Touche: in his internal company profile, he cites a sura of Koran “which explains how faithful Muslims will be rewarded by God.” Among his past activities there was also the less successful one of real estate agent.
He had some precedents for minor crimes (one theft in 2002, one driving with an expired permit in 2005 and one while drunk in 2015). Father of three children, he had been distressed by two divorces difficult (2012 and 2022) and come on debts of recent times. Friends and neighbors remember him as a kind, non-problematic, although very devoted person. But his ex-wife’s husband admitted that lately he had been behaving “strangely, he was completely out of it.” His brother Abdur Jabbar, 24, of Beaumont, described him as “a real sweetheart, a good guy, a friend, very intelligent, caring”, who converted to Islam at a young age. «But what he did does not represent Islam. This is more a form of radicalization, not religion,” he made clear.