ISIS terrorist Shamsud Din Jabbar who plowed his car into the reveling crowd of New Year Day in New Orleans killing 14 and injuring 57 had researched online what kind of car was used in the Germany Christmas market attack, the FBI said Tuesday. Jabbar also searched for past shootings in New Orleans, the city’s famous Mardi Gras celebration etc. Another intriguing search discovered on his devices is how to access a balcony on the famed Bourbon Street.
After ramming the car, Jabbar opened fire on security personnel and was gunned down by the police.
Shamsud-Din Jabbaar came to New Orleans on November 10 by train to look at an apartment for rent on Orleans street in the French Quarter but told the landlord that he changed his mind after applying to rent it.
FBI said their investigation revealed that Jabbar began isolating himself from society in 2022 around the time when he moved to his Houston trailer home where police found chemicals to make explosives.
Jabbar rented a truck on the Turo app and drove from Houston to New Orleans as he posted videos on his social media on the way. In one of those videos, he pledged allegiance to ISIS and said his original plan was to kill his family and friends but then he changed his mind because then the headlines would not focus on “war between the believers and the disbelievers”.
Hours before the attack, he searched for information about the car that rammed into a Christian market in Germany in December in which five people were killed and 200 were injured.
FBI also published a photo of Jabbar on November 10 when he was in New Orleans looking at an apartment. On December 31, he told his Houston neighbors that he was moving to New Orleans for better work.
A 42-year-old Texas Army veteran, Jabbar was indoctrinated by IS online. His truck had an ISIS flag on the back. Investigators have been probing when and how he was radicalized.
