Shamsud-Din Jabbar, identified as the perpetrator of the New Year attack in New Orleans, ran into the crowd with the intention of causing as many deaths as possible, according to US authorities. Jabbar, who was shot dead by police, used a Ford F-150 electric pickup truck as a deadly weapon, but he also carried firearms and explosives. And along with it, a black flag of the Islamic State (ISIS), which supports the terrorist thesis. The perpetrator, 42, is a US citizen from Texas who served in the military, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). It is unknown whether he acted as a lone wolf or with the help and support of accomplices.
“The FBI is working to determine the subject’s possible associations and affiliations with terrorist organizations,” the agency said in a statement. Authorities do not believe he is “solely responsible,” according to Alethea Duncan, assistant special agent of the FBI in New Orleans, at a press conference. “We are vigorously investigating all leads, including those from his known associates,” he said, urging anyone who has been in contact with the suspect in the past 72 hours to contact law enforcement.
The perpetrator of the accident, which left at least 10 dead and around thirty injured, died after a confrontation with police officers. The known data show a premeditated and calculated attack, taking advantage of the gathering of the crowd to celebrate the arrival of 2025. Shamsud-Din Jabbar rented the van on the car-sharing application Turo. He stayed in the city in an Airbnb apartment, according to local media. Around 3:15 in the morning he attacked pedestrians on Bourbon Street, in the heart of the French Quarter, the tourist center of the city and one of the favorite destinations of Americans for New Year’s celebrations.
There is little information about the person responsible for the accident. Local Texas records show the suspect in the New Orleans attack was arrested in Katy, Texas, in 2002 on misdemeanor robbery charges. In 2005, he was arrested by police in his hometown of Beaumont, also in Texas, for driving with an invalid license, another misdemeanor. Jabbar was in the military for almost a decade. He performed tasks as a technology and human resources specialist.
In a court document that the suspect filed in August 2022 as part of a divorce proceeding cited by The New York Times, Jabbar said he worked at the auditing and consulting firm Deloitte and earned about $120,000 a year. However, in an email earlier that year, the suspect described financial problems. He said he owed more than $27,000 in late payments on his home and was at risk of foreclosure. In addition, he said he had incurred $16,000 in credit card debt due to living expenses and the need to hire a lawyer, apparently for the divorce, according to the New York newspaper.
Before the author’s identity became known, the president-elect of the United States, Donald Trump, who linked immigration and crime during his campaign, dared to insinuate that he was a foreigner, although he later turned out to be an American citizen. “When I said that the criminals coming in are much worse than the criminals we have in our country, that statement was constantly refuted by Democrats and the fake news media, but it turned out to be true. The crime rate in our country is at a level that no one has seen before. Our hearts go out to all the innocent victims and their loved ones, including the brave officers of the New Orleans Police Department. “The Trump Administration will fully support the city of New Orleans as it investigates and recovers from this act of pure evil!” he wrote on his social network, Truth.
Fox News fueled that idea with the information that the truck had been seen crossing the border from Mexico in Eagle Pass (Texas). First he said that it had been only two days before; He later corrected himself and said that it was in November and that the perpetrator of the accident was not driving it, but by then the initial false information was already circulating at full speed on social networks and conservative media.
