(New Orleans) The man who drove a van into crowds in New Orleans during New Year’s Eve festivities, killing at least 14 people, likely acted alone and pledged to support the group Islamic State militant, the FBI revealed Thursday.
In surveillance video recorded before the attack, investigators saw Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a 42-year-old veteran, place coolers containing improvised explosive devices near the scene of the massacre that also injured at least 35 people, said Christopher Raia, FBI deputy director for counterintelligence, at a press conference.
The authorities have also not found a link between this attack and the explosion of a Tesla Cybertruck in front of the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas. They also ensured that there was no longer a threat to the public in New Orleans, where the Sugar Bowl took place Thursday afternoon, rather than Wednesday as initially planned.
The FBI said Wednesday that it believed Shamsud-Din Jabbar may have had accomplices, but after conducting interviews and reviewing Jabbar’s phone records, among other steps, the bureau determined he likely acted alone. .
FBI PHOTO, PROVIDED BY AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
Shamsud-Din Jabbar
“This is an act of terrorism,” says Mr. Raia. It was a premeditated and evil act. »
Authorities released new details about the attack, which took place along Bourbon Street around 3:15 a.m. on April 1er January. Shamsud-Din Jabbar drove his truck into New Year’s revelers before opening fire and being shot dead during a shootout with authorities.
Law enforcement discovered a flag of the Islamic State armed group attached to the truck’s hitch.
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Videos as a testament
Mr. Raia claims that Shamsud-Din Jabbar rented the Ford F-150 truck used in the attack in Houston on December 30, before traveling to New Orleans on the evening of December 31. During the trip, he recorded five videos which he posted on Facebook. Jabbar claims to have joined the Islamic State group before the summer and adds that these videos constitute in some way his testament, says Mr. Raia.
“In the first video, Jabbar explains that he had initially planned to harm his family and friends, but feared that newspaper headlines would not focus on the ‘war between believers and unbelievers’ “, says Mr. Raia.
PHOTO GERALD HERBERT, ASSOCIATED PRESS
The attack left at least 14 dead and around thirty injured.
Mr. Raia does not specify whether Jabbar had contact with the Islamic State group. He says authorities are trying to determine why he decided to carry out an attack in New Orleans. However, he suggests that he may have targeted Bourbon Street because of its large crowds.
In the days to come, it is the path leading to its radicalization that we will really focus on, and this will be one of our priorities.
Christopher Raia, FBI deputy director for counterintelligence
Authorities searched a New Orleans home in connection with the attack.
Joshua Jackson, the Principal Special Agent (SAC) of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) in the area, said during Thursday’s press conference that authorities believe the house caught fire after the suspect’s death and that investigators are working to determine the cause of the fire.
Authorities say they found three phones and two computers linked to Jabbar. Republican Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry stressed during the press conference that more than 1,000 law enforcement officers are involved in the investigation.
Life resumes in New Orleans
Bourbon Street reopened Thursday afternoon, and increased security measures were put in place for the Sugar Bowl.
Small crowds returned to the neighborhood, accompanied by musicians, dancers and other street performers. Visitors bought souvenirs and took drinks as they walked in the sunshine. They passed a new security barrier, local and state police and National Guard troops.
There was laughter and celebration, but also tears.
PHOTO KATHLEEN FLYNN, THE WASHINGTON POST
Samantha Petry sheds tears at the makeshift memorial to the victims of the attack.
Samantha Petry, 38, bartender in a karaoke bar on Bourbon Street and resident of the neighborhood, felt the need to go to the memorial marked by 14 yellow roses, after the reopening of the street, to “pay homage to the deceased”. There, she burst into tears.
While Mme Petry walked down the street, friends hugged her. It’s those she hasn’t seen yet that she worries about. “I’m still trying to contact them,” she said. Authorities have not released the names of all the victims.
Radicalization
Chris Pousson, who attended high school alongside Shamsud-Din Jabbar, said in an interview that the attack stunned residents of their hometown, Beaumont, Texas, where Mr. Pousson still lives. Jabbar was a good student, friendly and well-liked, he said.
“He was a very calm person. He stood aside. He was very reserved. He was not outgoing and did not disrupt classes. He wasn’t a troublemaker. »
Mr. Pousson explains that he and Shamsud-Din Jabbar graduated from high school in 2001. Jabbar joined the army and Mr. Pousson joined the air force. They lost touch for a while, but became friends on Facebook. The last time he spoke with Jabbar was in 2018. He had become more openly religious.
Every message or conversation we had ended up gravitating around Allah. There was nothing negative or violent, but it seemed like that was what he was thinking about and what he was passionate about.
Chris Pousson, who studied high school alongside Shamsud-Din Jabbar
Grant Savoy, a classmate of Jabbar’s at Central High School in Beaumont, said he was also very surprised to learn that Jabbar was linked to the attack. He describes Jabbar as “a quiet guy”. “He was an ordinary guy,” he continues.
Service in the army
Jabbar had been an employee since he was hired in 2021 by consulting firm Deloitte, says spokesperson Jonathan Gandal.
“Like everyone, we are outraged by this shameful and senseless act of violence and we are doing everything we can to help the authorities in their investigation,” assures Mr. Gandal. Shamsud-Din Jabbar previously worked at Accenture in Houston, according to a 2018 court document.
He served in the Army from 2007 to 2020, spending eight years on active duty and five years in the reserves, according to the Army.
His two military jobs, which were not combat-related, did not indicate specialized experience with weapons or explosives. He was on mission in Afghanistan in 2009-2010.
Shamsud-Din Jabbar married Nakedra Jabbar in 2008 in Beaumont, and they divorced in 2012, according to court records in North Carolina, where he was serving in the U.S. Army at the time. They had two daughters and the divorce was due to irreconcilable differences.
A man named Shamsuddin or Shamuddin Bahar Jabbar, apparently the same person who carried out the New Orleans attack, wrote in court documents that he moved to Georgia after driving drunk on the military reservation from Fort Bragg, North Carolina, in late 2014.
He later pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor and was sentenced to 12 months probation for that offense. As a condition of his release, he was ordered not to have overdue credit cards or open new lines of credit without government permission.
In addition to the drunk driving case, Jabbar pleaded guilty to misdemeanor theft in Texas in 2002 and was fined US$100 and given nine months of probation, according to court records.
In recent years, Jabbar described himself online as a competent real estate agent and businessman with a degree from Georgia State, but his private life was no less turbulent.
Marriage and divorce
He married Shaneen Jabbar in 2017 before filing for divorce in 2020. After they dropped the proceedings, he filed for divorce again a year later. They had a son and the divorce was finalized in 2022.
Divorce documents indicate his business ventures were struggling, his marriage was troubled and he was responsible for most of the household bills. Despite a job at Deloitte paying about US$120,000 a year, he said he struggled to pay the mortgage and had thousands of dollars in credit card debt.
In a January 2022 email to one of Shaneen Jabbar’s divorce attorneys, Shamsud-Din Jabbar requested that the case be resolved quickly and that the family’s four-bedroom home, located in Fresno, Texas, be sold.
“Time is of the essence,” he wrote, adding that he couldn’t pay off the house’s mortgage that month. “(The outstanding loan) is over US$27,000 and (the house) is at risk of foreclosure if we delay settling the divorce. »
Shamsud-Din Jabbar claimed to have “misunderstood the terms in the event of a defaulted loan” and to have “exhausted all means to repay on time”.
He said he told his wife months before that they had “no choice but to sell the house or have it foreclosed on.” He also demanded that Shaneen Jabbar turn over to him all of her interests in Blue Meadow Properties LLC, a company he said was created before their marriage, and in others created afterward, Jabbar Real Estate Holdings LLC and BDQ L3C.
Blue Meadow Properties LLC had made a loss of US$28,000 the previous year and was worth around US$140,000. As for the other two companies, they would not have been launched and were therefore worthless.
Blue Meadows Properties LLC, for which Shamsud-Din Jabbar is the agent, was subject to “tax forfeiture” (tax forfeiture) in March 2023, according to Texas Secretary of State records, which deprived her of her ability to operate.
This article was published in the Washington Post.
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