Two days after a man drove a rented truck into a crowd of revelers on New Orleans’ Bourbon Street, killing at least 14 people before he was killed in a shootout with police, his family is providing more details about his life before the attack.
The driver, identified by officials as Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, was a U.S.-born citizen from Texas and an Army veteran who law enforcement sources say was armed with an AR-15-style weapon and handgun. He also planted two improvised explosive devices or IEDs, but those were found and neutralized by law enforcement. When he drove through the crowd, he had an ISIS flag on the truck’s trailer hitch and had posted videos to social media in the hours and minutes before the attack declaring his support for the terrorist organization. The attack is being investigated by the FBI as an act of terrorism.
His younger brother Abdur-Rahim Jabbar, 24, told CBS News that he and Jabbar weren’t close growing up, because of their large age gap, but had bonded in 2023 as they cared for their father after he had a stroke. Abdur-Rahim Jabbar had noticed his brother becoming more outwardly religious but said he saw nothing to suggest his brother was being radicalized.
“This all just caught everybody completely by surprise,” Abdur-Rahim Jabbar said.
Abdur-Rahim Jabbar said his brother had recently gone through an expensive divorce. It was his third divorce, according to court records. His first marriage ended in 2012, with his ex-wife gaining custody of their two children. He was married again from 2013 to 2016, and married his third wife in 2017. The couple had one child and divorced in 2022.
In divorce filings, Jabbar said his monthly expenses, including child support for his first two children, exceeded his income. A pay stub from 2022 shows Jabbar was earning about $125,000 a year from his job at Deloitte. The company confirmed he had been hired there in 2021. His then-wife also accused him of financial mismanagement, including giving money to other lovers, in a separate court filing. During those divorce proceedings, Jabbar’s wife obtained a temporary restraining order against him.
Abdur-Rahim Jabbar said while they cared for their father, his brother “was a strong proponent of marriage staying together.” He said his brother also told him he had dropped “habits” like drinking, drugs and sex outside of marriage. His manner of dress also became more modest, Abdur-Rahim Jabbar recalled, and he had some tattoos removed.
None of the changes alarmed Abdur-Rahim Jabbar, however, and he said he was “shocked” to hear of his brother’s actions on New Year’s Day.
“He’d been a practicing Muslim since he was a kid and everything, and I think he took a step away from religion at some point in his life, and then he came back into it,” Abdur-Rahim Jabbar said.
FBI investigators say Shamsud-Din Jabbar shared videos on social media before the attack declaring support for ISIS and saying he had initially planned to hurt his family and friends, but “was concerned the news headlines would not focus on the quote, ‘war between the believers and the disbelievers,’ end quote,” deputy assistant director of the FBI’s counterintelligence division Christopher Raia said at a briefing Thursday. Raia said investigators are still trying to determine why Shamsud-Din Jabbar targeted Bourbon Street.
Abdur-Rahim Jabbar said he has met with FBI investigators. He said they also asked about his brother’s demeanor and personality, and if his behavior had changed recently.
“None of it feels real, but with every moment someone reaches out to me, news, media reporters, anybody, the FBI, it solidifies as being real,” Abdur-Rahim Jabbar said. “I can’t imagine what those families (of the victims) are going through either. I’m sure they’re grieving as much as I am, as my family is.”
CBS News producer Sean Herbert contributed to this report.
Kerry Breen is a news editor at CBSNews.com. A graduate of New York University’s Arthur L. Carter School of Journalism, she previously worked at NBC News’ TODAY Digital. She covers current events, breaking news and issues including substance use.
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