Investigators in New Orleans were searching on Thursday for what motivated a U.S. Army veteran flying an ISIS flag from his truck to plow into a crowd of New Year’s revelers, killing 15 people and injuring 30 more before dying in a shootout with police.
Shamsud-Din Jabbar, the 42-year-old Texas man accused of crashing a truck into New Year’s Day revelers in New Orleans, served in the U.S. Army for 13 years including a deployment to Afghanistan.
Federal officials and local law enforcement in New Orleans said that Jabbar did not act alone and that they are looking for accomplices. The FBI said Jabbar had an Islamic State flag on his truck and view the attack as a potential act of terrorism. The Islamic State, or ISIS, is a Sunni Muslim militant group which has carried out attacks throughout the world.
While the investigation is ongoing, so far no information has surfaced to explain why Jabbar, a U.S. citizen raised in Texas, would carry out the New Orleans attack. Jabbar died at the scene in a shootout with police, officials said.
Jabbar served in the Army as a human resource specialist and information technology specialist from 2007 until 2015. He then joined the Army Reserve as an IT specialist until 2020, holding the rank of staff sergeant at the end of service, according to an Army official.
Jabbar deployed to Afghanistan from February 2009 to January 2010, the official said.
Before serving in the Army, Jabbar enlisted in the Navy in August 2004 under a delayed entry program but was discharged a month later, a Navy official told Reuters.
Corporate records show that Jabbar got involved in a series of businesses in recent years.
