BEAUMONT, Texas (Aiexpress) — Shamsud-Din Jabbar was born in Texas and grew up there. He joined the U.S. Army and then moved to Houston, where he started a real estate business and worked for one of the biggest consulting groups in the world, making $120,000 a year.
But the U.S. citizen, 42, who police say drove a rented truck through New Year’s parties in New Orleans before being shot and killed by police, also had to deal with stress. In court papers, he said he couldn’t pay his debt and his business was losing money, which led to his third divorce in 2022.
Thursday, police and Jabbar’s family were still trying to figure out why he drove his Ford F-150 through a crowd on Bourbon Street, killing 14 people and hurting at least 30 others. Police said the attack was motivated by the Islamic State. It was one of the deadliest attacks on U.S. land in recent years that was motivated by IS.
FBI agents said that Jabbar put five videos on Facebook the night before the attack in which he sided with IS. The truck that was used in the attack early Wednesday morning also had an Islamic State flag on it.
“It goes against everything his family and friends know about him,” his brother Abdur-Rahim Jabbar told The Associated Press on Thursday at his home in Beaumont, which is about 90 miles outside of Houston.
The 24-year-old said that over the last few years, his older brother had become less involved with family and friends. However, when they talked, the 24-year-old hadn’t seen any signs of radicalization. He said it had been a few weeks since they had talked on the phone and a few months since he had seen his brother in person.
He didn’t seem tense or strange in any way. It looked like he wasn’t mad or anything. “He was being himself—calm, polite, and well-behaved,” his younger brother said.
Police say that after driving into the crowd on Bourbon Street and crashing his truck, Jabbar got out of the car wearing an explosive vest and helmet and fired at police, hitting at least two of them before they shot and killed him.
Army, court, and other public records paint a picture of a man who had lived or been stationed in several states, such as North Carolina, Texas, Georgia, and Alaska. He had also been married more than once and seemed to be having money problems as he tried to adjust to private life.
The Army said that Jabbar started in 2007 and worked as an active duty soldier in human resources and information technology. From 2009 to 2010, he was sent to Afghanistan. During 2015, he joined the Army Reserve. He left in 2020 as a staff sergeant rank.
A representative for Georgia State University stated that Jabbar went to the school from 2015 to 2017 and earned a bachelor’s degree in computer information systems that year.
In the last twenty years, he had been married at least three times. He had at least three children, who were named in divorce and child custody orders. Court records show that his last two marriages, in Georgia and Texas, each lasted about three years.
Two months ago, Dwayne Marsh, who is married to one of Jabbar’s ex-wives, told The New York Times that Jabbar had been acting strangely. Marsh told the group that he and his wife no longer let Jabbar’s two girls spend time with them.
The AP called Marsh’s number and left a message Thursday. Also, messages were left for Jabbar’s two other ex-wives at their home phones or with their lawyers.
The AP also tried to reach Jabbar’s mother but had not heard back by Thursday afternoon. Their brother Abdur-Rahim Jabbar said their dad wouldn’t talk to reporters.
Divorce records also show that Jabbar’s finances were getting worse in January 2022. Jabbar told her he was $27,000 behind on the house payments and wanted to end the split quickly.
He told his now-ex-wife’s lawyer in January 2022, “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 let it go into foreclosure.”
His companies were also having a hard time. In 2021, Blue Meadow Properties LLC lost around $28,000. He also started BDQ L3C and Jabbar Real Estate Holdings LLC, but neither of them was worth anything. According to the email, he also had $16,000 in credit card bills from things like lawyer fees.
In 2022, he worked as a business developer and did other work for the consulting company Deloitte, which claimed he made around $10,000 a month.
Police blocked entry to Jabbar’s last known address in Houston on Wednesday. It was a small white mobile home in a gated community where ducks and goats were grazing in the grass. The FBI said Thursday that its search of the area was over, but it didn’t give any more information.
Even though court records show a lot of trouble, Abdur-Rahim Jabbar said his brother hadn’t shown any outward signs of being upset or angry about his relationships.
“I think he blamed himself more than anyone else for his divorces.” “He was never mean to his ex-wives,” the younger Jabbar said.
Childhood friend and fellow soldier Chris Pousson got back in touch with Jabbar on Facebook around 2009. But by 2019, they had lost touch again. He said that when he checked in with Jabbar from his home in Beaumont, the main things that he remembered were positive texts and praise for his faith, but nothing that raised any red flags.
“I had no idea this would happen.” I also worked against terrorism while I was in the military. He also said, “If any red flags had gone up, I would have seen them and gone straight to the right people.”
“But he didn’t do anything that would have made me think he was capable of what happened.”
