Who is the 'terrorist' who killed 15 in New Orleans?

January 02, 2025 12:40

Police carry a dead body from the site. Pic: Eduardo Munoz/Reuters

The FBI has named the assailant as 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Jabbar, an Army veteran and US citizen from Texas.

A flag associated with the Islamic State (IS) group was found in the vehicle he was driving and the FBI said it was investigating what affiliations Jabbar may have had with terrorist groups.

In an evening address, President Joe Biden said the FBI had briefed him on the attack. The suspect uploaded videos to social media "mere hours before the attack" indicating that he was inspired by IS and expressing a "desire to kill", Biden said.

Suspected improvised explosive devices were also found in the area.

A long gun with a "suppressive device" on it - acting as a silencer - was also recovered.

According to a now-removed LinkedIn profile, Jabbar had worked in various roles in the US Army, including in human resources and IT, before he was discharged. He was deployed to Afghanistan from February 2009 to January 2010.

In a YouTube video posted in 2020, Jabbar said his time in the military had taught him "the meaning of great service and what it means to be responsive and take everything seriously, dotting i's and crossing t's to make sure that things go off without a hitch".

He studied at Georgia State University from 2015 to 2017, graduating with a degree in computer information systems.

He was married twice. His first marriage ended in 2012 and his second lasted from 2017 to 2022.

He also appears to have worked in real estate, holding a licence that expired in 2021. He had a criminal record, relating to traffic offences and theft.

The pick-up truck he was driving was electric and believed to have been rented in Texas via an app called Turo.

-- BBC

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