The suspect in the New Orleans attack has been identified by the FBI as 42-year-old US citizen Shamsud-Deen Jabbar, who appears to be a real estate agent from Texas who served for years in the military but experienced financial difficulties and a divorce. Did. In a video posted on YouTube four years ago, Jabbar – speaking in a Southern American accent – was advertising his property management services to potential clients while boasting of his skills as a “fierce negotiator”.
The Pentagon said Jabbar served in the Army as a human resources specialist and IT specialist from 2007 to 2015 and then in the Army Reserve until 2020.
An Army spokesman said he deployed to Afghanistan from February 2009 to January 2010 and held the rank of staff sergeant at the end of his service. Earlier the FBI had said it believed he had been honorably acquitted.
Criminal records reported by The New York Times show that Jabbar had two previous convictions for minor crimes – one for theft in 2002 and another for driving with an invalid license in 2005.
According to the newspaper, Jabbar was married twice, with his second marriage ending in divorce in 2022, after he described facing financial problems in an email to his wife’s lawyer.
“I can’t make the house payments,” he reportedly wrote. He also wrote that his real estate company lost more than $28,000 last year, and he took up thousands in credit card debt to pay for lawyers. Was.
A man named Abdur Jabbar in Beaumont, Texas, told The New York Times that he was the suspect’s brother and described him as “really a sweetheart, a good guy, a friend, really smart, caring.”
He said the suspect had converted to Islam at a young age, but “what he did does not represent Islam. It is some kind of fundamentalism, not a religion.”
President Joe Biden told reporters that, hours before the attack, Jabbar had shared videos online that indicated he was “inspired by ISIS”, citing information from spies and members of the Islamic State armed group. Was using another name.
The FBI said a black flag associated with the group was also found in the vehicle used in the attack.
Georgia State University confirmed to AFP that a man named Shamsud-Deen Jabbar attended the university from 2015-2017 and earned a bachelor’s degree in computer systems.
In his YouTube video – which was seen by AFP but later removed by moderators – Jabbar spoke candidly about his time serving in the US military.
He said that from this experience, he “learned the meaning of great service and what it means to be responsive and take everything seriously, dotting the I’s and crossing the T’s to make sure things go off without a hitch.” Have been.”
At least 15 people were killed and dozens were injured when Jabbar allegedly drove a truck at high speed into a crowd of New Year’s revelers in New Orleans.
Authorities said he crashed the vehicle, then opened fire and was killed in a shootout with police.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
