Federal authorities named the suspect as 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Jabbar. He was was shot dead by police after the likely terror attack that killed 15 people and injured more than Jabbar, an American citizen, is understood to have served from 2007 to 2015 as an human resources and information technology specialist in the U.S. military. He deployed to Afghanistan before transitioning to the Army Reserve, where he served until 2020, according to The New York Times. More recently, he worked as a realtor in Texas.30.
A source who spoke with the New Orleans Times-Picayune claimed Jabbar was wearing a military uniform and body armor, and had an ISIS flag in his vehicle at the time of the attack. The FBI’s statement confirmed the presence of this flag, and law enforcement sources who spoke with CNN said authorities had recovered other writings tying him to the Middle-East based terror group. The agency said it is working to “determine the subject’s potential associations and affiliations with terrorist groups.”
Cops found weapons and what they believe was an improvised explosive device in the truck, as well as another bomb in a cooler near the scene.
Jabbar had converted to Islam at a “young age,” the Times reported. In recent years, Jabbar cut his hair and began acting crazy, according to Dwayne Marsh, the current husband of Jabbar’s ex-wife, Nakedra Charrlle, who spoke with the Times following the attack. Earlier this year, Charrlle cut her ex-husband off from seeing the pair’s two daughters, aged 15 and 20, citing his erratic behavior.
She previously took out a restraining order against Jabbar in 2020, NBC News reported, citing court records.
The FBI also said Wednesday that they do not believe Jabbar was “solely responsible” for the attack, and are “aggressively running down all leads to identify any possible associates.”
Jabbar was driving what appeared to be a white Ford pick-up truck and had been staying at an Airbnb in the city. The truck was reportedly rented out on Turo, an app that allows car owners to rent out vehicles privately.
The same app was allegedly used by the driver of a Tesla Cybertruck that exploded outside of a hotel owned by President-elect Donald Trump in Las Vegas Wednesday morning. Authorities are probing whether there are any connections between the two incidents.
Born in Beaumont, Texas, Jabbar spent ten years in the military as a human resources and IT specialist and also worked as a realtor in Houston.
He studied for two years at Georgia State University between 2015 and 2017, the school confirmed Wednesday, and graduated with a bachelor’s in business administration.
A man matching Jabbar’s details has a record of minor offenses in Katy, Texas including misdemeanor theft in 2002 and driving with a suspended or invalid license in 2005
He was registered as a Democrat in North Carolina in 2012.
Records show that Jabbar was married twice, with his first marriage ending in 2012, reported the New York Times. According to the Times, the suspect filed a court document in August 2022 as part of further divorce proceedings that said he said he worked at the time for the accounting firm Deloitte and made about $120,000 a year.
In an email earlier that year, however he said he owed more than $27,000 in late payments on his house and was facing foreclosure.
TMZ has reported that his ex-wife earlier went to court to get a restraining order against him during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The judge who granted the restraining order reportedly wrote that Jabbar and his former partner were prohibited from “intentionally, knowingly or recklessly causing bodily injury to the other party or to a child of either party.”
The identities of Jabbar’s victims began emerging on Wednesday afternoon. Among them was 18-year-old Nikyra Dedeaux—a Gulfport, Mississippi native who’d traveled to the Big Easy to ring in 2025. She was set to begin a nursing program in two weeks at Blue Cliff College in her home state.
Dedeaux’s heartbroken mom said she’d warned the teenager not to go out in New Orleans.
“When your parents say don’t go anywhere, please listen to them,” she wrote on Facebook, reported the Clarion Ledger. “This was an act of terrorism and now my baby is gone y’all.”
Former Princeton wide receiver Tiger Bech was also among the dead. The 28-year-old Louisiana native starred at the Division I university between 2016 and 2018, where he earned “All-Ivy League” honors as a kick returner in his final season—the same year Princeton went undefeated.
Also killed was 37-year-old Reggie Hunter, a warehouse manager from the Louisiana capital Baton Rouge. He and his cousin decided “on a whim” to go to Bourbon Street on Tuesday night, reported the Times-Picayune, citing loved ones. Hunter’s cousin survived the attack but was hospitalized with serious injuries.
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