A U.S. Army veteran from Texas who was employed by Deloitte is the suspect in a bloody New Year's Day attack in New Orleans that killed at least 15 people and injured 30 more.
Federal investigators identified Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, as the man who intentionally rammed a rented pickup into revelers around 3:15 a.m. on Bourbon Street as people were ringing in the new year.
He died in a shootout with police. Two officers were shot and were stable, officials said.
Federal and local officials are working to uncover a motive behind the attack and determine whether Jabbar acted alone or had help.
“This is not just an act of terrorism. This is evil,” Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said.
The carnage unfolded when Jabbar drove onto a sidewalk, bypassing a police vehicle that had been parked to block cars from pedestrians celebrating on crowded Bourbon Street, officials told reporters Wednesday afternoon.
According to preliminary information, Jabbar had a black ISIS flag affixed to the hitch of the Ford F-150 Lightning truck.
The car-sharing marketplace Turo said the vehicle was rented from its company. In an emailed statement, a spokesperson said the company is heartbroken over the attack and is actively working with law enforcement.
Turo does not believe the car renter had a criminal background that would have identified him as a security threat, according to the statement.
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In an address to the nation, President Joe Biden said Jabbar posted videos to social media “indicating he was inspired by ISIS, expressing a desire to kill.”
“The ISIS flag was found in his vehicle,” Biden said, citing information from the FBI. He added that no one should jump to conclusions about the investigation.
CNN, citing two officials briefed on the investigation, reported that law enforcement is reviewing videos made by Jabbar while he drove to Louisiana in which he discussed his allegiance to ISIS. NBC News hasn’t independently verified that reporting.
Federal officials and local law enforcement agencies in New Orleans are investigating whether Jabbar used a long-gun rifle and fired it into the crowd as he ran people over, three senior law enforcement officials briefed on the investigation told NBC News.
The incident is being investigated as both a terrorist attack and a crime scene, federal and local officials said.
“We will be relentless, and we will do everything that it takes to render real justice,” Mayor LaToya Cantrell said at a news conference.
The FBI, which is leading the investigation, said weapons and potential improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, were in Jabbar’s car and in the French Quarter.
Officials are looking into at least two IEDs that may have been planted near the attack area to determine whether those were actual explosive devices and whether they were operable.
“We’re aggressively running down all of the leads to identify this, the possible subjects, associates. We’re working to ensure that there is no further threat,” Alethea Duncan, an assistant special agent in charge of the FBI’s New Orleans field office, told reporters.
Jabbar had been working for professional services giant Deloitte in a staff-level role since 2021, the company confirmed to NBC News.
“We are shocked to learn of reports ... that the individual identified as a suspect had any association with our firm,” Deloitte managing director Jonathan Gandal said in a statement.
“Like everyone, we are outraged by this shameful and senseless act of violence and are doing all we can to assist authorities in their investigation,” he said. He did not expand on the nature of Jabbar’s work for the company.
Jabbar served in the Army on active duty from 2006 to 2015, then in the Army Reserve from 2015 to 2020, according to three U.S. defense officials.
He was deployed to Afghanistan in 2009 and was an administrative clerk. He was a staff sergeant in 2020 when he was honorably discharged.
Separately, he tried to enlist in the Navy in 2004 but never shipped out or began training, a spokesperson said.
Texas criminal records show that Jabbar was charged in 2002 with misdemeanor theft and in 2005 with driving with an invalid license.
He attended Georgia State University from 2015 to 2017 and graduated with a BBA in computer information systems, a university spokesperson said.
A childhood friend said Jabbar’s alleged actions on Wednesday don’t at all align with the person he knew growing up in Beaumont, Texas.
“What happened today was a complete 180 of anything I ever knew about him,” said Chris Pousson, who last spoke with Jabbar, whom he called “Sham,” sometime in 2017 or 2018. “He was very quiet, very reserved, smart, articulate.”
Pousson said he first met Jabbar in 1996 at Beaumont Middle School. They became instant friends and later attended the same high school. After graduating, the two lost touch when Jabbar joined the Army and Pousson joined the Air Force.
When they reconnected on Facebook several years later, Pousson noticed Jabbar’s posts focused on his Muslim faith.
“It was always positive — peace be with you, uplifting type of stuff,” Pousson said. “Nothing that he posted online that I saw was negative.”
“I didn’t see this coming from a mile away,” he added.
Civil records show Jabbar was married twice, with his first marriage ending in 2012 and his second in 2022.
In 2020, Jabbar’s second wife filed a motion for a temporary restraining order, according to public records.
The order barred both parties from “intentionally, knowingly, or recklessly causing bodily injury to the other party or to a child of either party” or “threatening the other party or a child of either party with imminent bodily injury.”
A month later, the divorce case was dismissed, and a new divorce petition was filed in 2021. Jabbar and his ex-wife were granted joint custody of their child in 2022.
In a video posted to YouTube in 2020, Jabbar said he was born in Beaumont, Texas, and worked in real estate after having served a decade in the military.
His real estate license expired in 2023, according to Texas Real Estate Commission records.
A woman who identified herself as Jabbar’s sister-in-law and asked not to be named said relatives in Texas were in shock when they heard the news.
It makes “no sense,” she said. “He’s the nicest person I’ve ever known.”
“I really don’t know what happened,” she added. “He was a good man. He takes care of his children and everything.”
She said some family members were heading from Texas to New Orleans.
