New Orleans terrorist was going to slay family but opted to kill strangers ‘so news would focus on war on non-believers’
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THE New Orleans terrorist made plans to slay his family but instead chose to kill innocent strangers so the world would focus on his attack on "non-believers". US Army veteran Shamsud-Din Jabbar rammed his pickup truck through a crowd of New Year's Day revellers - killing 14 people and injuring dozens more.
![[Shamsud-Din Jabbar proclaimed his support for ISIS months before the deadly New Year's Day rampage in New Orleans]](https://www.the-sun.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2025/01/2020-photograph-part-new-wanted-961145963.jpg?strip=all&w=723)
He was killed during a heated exchange of fire with the cops after the attack. The FBI revealed that former sergeant Jabbar, who was once deployed to Afghanistan, pledged his allegiance to ISIS months before the January 1 attack on New Orleans' Bourbon Street.
![[Jabbar hung an ISIS flag on the back of the Ford F-150 he rented in Houston on December 30]](https://www.the-sun.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2025/01/image_e13655.png?strip=all&w=620)
Hours before the attack, Jabbar posted five videos on social media where he proclaimed his support for ISIS as he traveled from Houston to New Orleans on the evening of December 31. In the first video, Jabbar, 42, explained how he initially planned to call his family and ex-wife for a "celebration" with plans to kill them together.
![[The Federal Bureau of Investigation released photos of surveillance footage that shows Shamsud-Din Jabbar an hour before he drove a truck down Bourbon Street, New Orleans, early Jan. 1, 2025.]](https://www.the-sun.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2025/01/federal-bureau-investigation-released-photos-961144278.jpg?strip=all&w=501)
However, he later revealed that he pivoted his attack because he wanted news headlines to focus on the “war between the believers and the disbelievers", said Christopher Raia, the deputy assistant director of the FBI’s Counterterrorism Division. Jabbar, who Raia stated was 100% inspired by ISIS, said in one of the videos that he had joined the terrorist organization "before the summer".
![[The white truck used in the attack was left at the scene]](https://www.the-sun.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2025/01/multiple-fatalities-car-crashes-crowd-960917713_500143.jpg?strip=all&w=824)
Raia said the FBI is now confident there are no accomplices, and it's believed Jabbar attacked on his own. Investigators are still digging into Jabbar's past and what radicalized the US Army veteran. Jabbar was a US Army veteran who served for more than 10 years, including a deployment to Afghanistan in 2009.
![[A photo of one of the coolers containing an improvised explosive device (IED) placed by Shamsud-Din Jabbar]](https://www.the-sun.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/6/2025/01/placed-shamsud-din-jabbar-texas-961146203.jpg?strip=all&w=643)
