In a series of videos, the suspect in the deadly New Year's Eve bombing in New Orleans discussed planning to kill his family and having dreams that helped inspire him to join ISIS, according to multiple officials briefed on the investigation.
Shamsud-Din Jabbar, the 42-year-old man who police suspect drove a pickup truck into a crowd of revelers on Bourbon Street, killing at least 15 people and injuring dozens of others, captured the chilling footage while he from his home in Texas to Louisiana, authorities believe.
Jabbar, a U.S. citizen and Army veteran who served in Afghanistan, referenced his divorce in the videos and how he initially planned to gather his family for a “party” with the intention of killing them. said on the recordings. But Jabbar said in the videos that he had changed his plans and joined ISIS, and referenced several dreams he had about why he should join the terrorist group, according to officials.
The videos, which CNN has not reviewed, appear to have been recorded while he was driving at night, officials said, although the exact timing is unclear.
Jabbar was killed when he exchanged fire with police after ramming the truck through crowds in the early hours of New Year's Day. According to local and federal authorities, he had potentially improvised explosive devices and an ISIS flag in the truck he was driving.
Now law enforcement authorities are reviewing videos Jabbar captured as they rush to provide details of how he went from military veteran to suspect in a deadly rampage.
Jabbar served in the military for more than a decade, an army spokesman told CNN on Wednesday. He served as a human resources and information technology specialist from March 2007 to January 2015 and deployed once to Afghanistan from February 2009 to January 2010, the spokesman said. After leaving active duty in January 2015, Jabbar served in the Army Reserve until July 2020, when he left the service as a staff sergeant.
Jabbar was born in Beaumont, Texas, he said in a 2020 YouTube video titled “Personal Introduction,” in which he presented himself as a professional real estate agent in Houston.
The FBI has released Shamsud-Din Jabbar's passport photo. -FBI
Serving in the military taught Jabbar “the meaning of good service and what it means to be responsive and take everything seriously, dotting the i's and crossing the t's to make sure everything runs smoothly,” he said in the YouTube video, which has since been taken offline. In the video, he sat next to a framed poster with the word “Discipline” in bold, and next to a book titled “Leadership.”
Jabbar earned an associate degree from Central Texas College in 2010 and a bachelor's degree from Georgia State University in 2017, according to an online resume. Both degrees were related to computer science and information technology. According to the resume, he later worked in business development and data engineering at the consulting firms Deloitte and Accenture.
Georgia State University confirmed to CNN that Jabbar attended from 2015 to 2017 and graduated with a bachelor's degree in business administration in computer information systems. Central Texas College and Accenture did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Wednesday. In a statement, Deloitte said: “We are shocked to learn today that the person identified as the suspect had some connection to our company. The individual mentioned served in a staff-level role since being hired in 2021. Like everyone else, we are outraged by this shameful and senseless act of violence and are doing everything we can to assist the authorities in their investigation.”
Jabbar obtained a real estate license in 2019 and the license expired in 2023, according to Texas Real Estate Commission records. Records show that he took a series of real estate classes between 2018 and 2021 on topics such as contract law and finance. He is also listed in the public records as having previously registered or been associated with several companies in Texas and Georgia.
Jabbar is divorced from two of his ex-wives, court documents show. His first wife sued him for child support in 2012, shortly after he filed for divorce, and the court ordered Jabbar to pay amounts that increased over the years as his income grew. The case was dismissed in 2022.
A Texas judge issued a temporary restraining order against Jabbar in 2020 after his second wife requested it during their divorce case. The order required Jabbar to refrain from threats, physical harm or other specified conduct toward his ex-wife and any of their children, and required her to avoid the same activity. In a court filing, Jabbar's ex-wife said the marriage had become “untenable due to disagreement or personal conflict.”
Harris County court records also show that Jabbar pleaded guilty in December 2002 to theft between $50 and $500 and served nine months on “community supervision.”
Jabbar appears to have struggled with his finances in recent years. In a January 2022 email filed as part of his divorce case, he wrote that he could not afford the payment on his house, which he said was more than $27,000 in arrears and was “in danger of being foreclosed” if his divorce settlement was further postponed.
Jabbar also stated in the email that a company he founded, Blue Meadow Properties, had lost about $28,000 the previous year, and that other companies he founded were worth no money. He added that he had racked up about $16,000 in credit card debt.
Jabbar appears to have rented the truck he used in the New Year's attack, a Ford F-150 Lightning electric truck, on the car rental website Turo, which allows owners to rent their vehicles to other people. The owner of the truck told CNN in a text message that it was rented on Turo.
Turo did not respond to a request for comment, but the site retired the truck for rental Wednesday morning. Before it was disabled, the vehicle cost $105 per day, excluding taxes and fees, and was not available for rent on Wednesdays until 12:30 p.m. central time.
CNN's Evan Perez and Pamela Brown contributed to this report.
Editor's note: This story has been updated with new information about the suspect and a statement from Deloitte.
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