A man from Texas has been identified as the person behind the New Orleans attack that has left 15 people dead.
Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a 42-year-old US Army veteran, was shot and killed by police officers after ramming a Ford F-150 Lightning pickup truck into busy crowds on Bourbon Street before opening fire.
The frenzied attack, which took place in the early hours of New Year’s Day, has so far claimed the lives of 15 people and injured 35 more.
"This is not just an act of terrorism. This is evil," said Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick. She added that the attacker "was hellbent on creating the carnage and the damage that he did".
Investigators are now working to determine a motive behind the attack, with authorities claiming that ISIS may have inspired the attacker.
Homemade pipe bombs were also reportedly found at the scene, and there are growing suspicions that he didn’t act alone.
President Joe Biden said that there was evidence “indicating he was inspired by ISIS, expressing a desire to kill,” revealing a flag associated with the terrorist group had been found in his car.
Who was Shamsud-Din Jabbar?
FBI have confirmed that Jabbar, a US citizen from Texas and army veteran, was the attacker behind the deadly New Orleans attack.
According to a YouTube video from 2020 that has since been removed from the platform, Jabbar was born and raised in Beaumont, Texas, and worked in the army before going into real estate.
Jabbar held various roles within the US Army within IT and human resources and was even deployed to Afghanistan between February 2009 to January 2010 before he was honourably discharged.
Reports claim that he later worked in real estate and held a position at Deloitte before enlisting for the Navy, although he never made it to boot camp and was discharged from the program.
It is understood that Jabbar had been married twice and shared two children with his first wife.
Newsweek reported that his second ex-wife, Shaneed Chantil Jabbar, was granted a temporary restraining order in 2020.
He was living in the Houston area at the time of the attack.
Sources speaking to ABC News claim investigators are looking into a video recorded while driving in which the suspect allegedly talks about his divorce and desire to kill family members.
The attacker’s brother told the New York Times that he converted to Islam at a young age, but “what he did does not represent Islam. This is more some type of radicalization, not religion.”
What happened in New Orleans?
At 3:15am on New Year’s Day, Jabbar drove a rented pick up truck at high speeds into celebrating crowds in New Orleans’ French Quarter.
A total of 15 people, many of them local, were killed in the attack and dozens more remain in hospital.
He then opened fire on police, injuring two officers before he was shot and killed at the scene.
Supt Kirkpatrick, from New Orleans Police Department, explained he was "trying to run over as many people as possibly could".
It is now being investigated as an act of terrorism.
