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The truck driver who plowed into a crowd of New Year’s Eve revelers on Bourbon Street in New Orleans has been identified as an ISIS flag-carrying U.S. Army veteran who converted to Islam in recent years, according to multiple reports.
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 30.
Jabbar, an American citizen, is understood to have served for 10 years in the U.S. military and worked as a realtor in Texas.
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.”
Jabbar had converted to Islam at “some point” after being honorably discharged from the Army, The New York Times reported. Following his conversion, 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.
Police descend on Bourbon Street after more than a dozen people were killed when a person drove into a crowd of revelers in the early morning hours of New Year’s Day. / Michael DeMocker / Getty Images
The FBI also said Tuesday 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, and police are said to be in contact with its owner.
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.
At least 15 were killed in New Orleans after a presumed terrorist rammed his truck into New Years’ Eve revelers. / Marc Weiszer / via REUTERS
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.”
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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