We take no pleasure in continuing to reiterate that hatred and violence don’t take days off in the United States of America. Even after surviving a hellish 2024, as soon as 2025 was christened, someone was plotting to take lives and shed blood.
According to AP News, 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Jabbar is the man who the FBI says careened his pickup truck into a crowd of partygoers on New Orleans’ famed Bourbon Street in the early hours of Jan. 1.
The attack killed 14 people (15 including Jabbar who was gunned down by police following the incident), and the FBI is labeling the incident an act of terrorism as they believe that Jabbar was acting on behalf of the ISIS. A black flag representing the Islamic State group was recovered by law enforcement on the scene, likely so as not to inspire others to take copycat action on behalf of the terrorist organization.
Here’s what is known about Jabbar at this point:
Jabbar joined the Army in 2007, serving on active duty in human resources and information technology and deploying to Afghanistan from 2009 to 2010, the service said. He transferred to the Army Reserve in 2015 and left in 2020 with the rank of staff sergeant.
AP noted that law enforcement has finished processing the scene and removing the dead and injured bodies from Bourbon Street and that normal operations are set to resume today.
We will provide more information as it becomes available.