At least 15 people have been killed and dozens wounded after a man, identified by the FBI as a United States military veteran, ploughed a pick-up truck into a crowd of New Year’s revellers on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, US. The suspect, who was killed in a police shootout, has been identified as Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a US citizen from the state of Texas.
New Orleans Attacks | Who Was Shamsud-Din Jabbar
Why In News
- At least 15 people have been killed and dozens wounded after a man, identified by the FBI as a United States military veteran, ploughed a pick-up truck into a crowd of New Year’s revellers on Bourbon Street in New Orleans, US. The suspect, who was killed in a police shootout, has been identified as Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a US citizen from the state of Texas.
What Happened In New Orleans
- At about 3:15am (09:15 GMT), a rented Ford F-150 pick-up truck drove at high speed into a crowd of New Year’s revellers in New Orleans, according to local police.
- New Orleans Police Department Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said the driver swerved around barricades and was driving at “very high speed” and in a “very intentional” manner.
- “This man was trying to run over as many people as he possibly could,” Kirkpatrick told reporters. “He was hell-bent on creating the carnage and the damage that he did,” she added.
- After the car stopped, the driver jumped out of the vehicle and fired at responding officers, who shot back and killed him.
- The FBI said they found an explosive device at the site, but are working to confirm if it is viable or not.
- Jabbar appears to have rented the F-150 Lightning electric truck from the car rental website Turo.
- Authorities found that the same rental website was linked to an incident on Wednesday in Las Vegas, where a Tesla Cybertruck exploded outside a Trump hotel. It’s not clear if the two incidents are related.
Who Is The Suspect
- FBI identified the suspect as 42-year-old Jabbar, who served in the US military between 2007 and 2020. He also deployed to Afghanistan from February 2009 to January 2010.
- He graduated from Georgia State University in 2017 earning a degree in computer information systems.
- The FBI said an ISIL (ISIS) flag was found in the vehicle used in the attack. The bureau is trying to determine if Jabbar was associated with any “terrorist” organisations.
- New Orleans City Council President Helena Moreno said the suspect was dressed in full military gear and police had described his acts as intentional.
- Court records show Jabbar faced a deteriorating financial situation in 2022 while separating from his then-wife. Jabbar said he was $27,000 behind on house payments, accumulated $16,000 in credit card debt and wanted to quickly finalise the divorce.
- “I have exhausted all means of bringing the loan current other than a loan modification, leaving us no alternative but to sell the house or allow it to go into foreclosure,” he wrote in a January 2022 email to his now-ex-wife’s lawyer.
- He also worked with consulting firm Deloitte earning about $10,000 a month. In a statement, Deloitte said Jabbar had “served in a staff-level role” since being hired in 2021 and that the company was doing all it could to assist authorities.
- “There’s a number of red flags when you look at this [attack], including the attacker’s age – not really the kind of prototype for an individual to be radicalised. The fact that he was in the US military, so I think it bears caution for sure,” said Colin Clarke from Soufan Center, a foreign policy and global security think tank based in New York.
- “And frankly, authorities have not been good with communications. There have been a number of false leaks. Earlier today was revealed that there were more people involved, and then authorities rolled that back,” he told Al Jazeera from Pennsylvania.
