The man who drove a truck into a New Year’s Day crowd in New Orleans, killing 15 and injuring dozens of others in a terrorist attack once lived in metro Atlanta and earned a degree from Georgia State University.
Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, a U.S. citizen from Texas, was identified as the suspect by the FBI Wednesday. Jabbar, who was killed in a shootout with law enforcement at the crime scene, lived in Cobb and DeKalb counties, records show.
Credit: FBI
Credit: FBI
Officials with Georgia State confirmed Jabbar earned a BBA degree in Computer Information Systems in 2017 and has not been an active student since.
DeKalb divorce court records also show Jabbar filed for divorce from a Cobb County woman on May 19, 2016. They had married on Sept. 15, 2013 and had no children. He reportedly also married and divorced in Texas.
Efforts by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution to reach Jabbar’s former wife in Georgia on Wednesday afternoon were unsuccessful.
Jabbar also spent more than a decade in the U.S. Army and Army Reserve, deploying to Afghanistan from February 2009 to January 2010.
In the regular Army, he served as a human resource specialist and information technology specialist from March 2007 until January 2015, according to statement released late Wednesday from the U.S. Army. He was an IT specialist in the Army Reserve from January 2015 until July 2020.
At the end of his service, Jabbar had attained rank of staff sergeant.
Records show Jabbar apparently lived on Horseshoe Creek Drive in Marietta. Jeff and Amanda Rigen, who live across the street from his former address, remembered Jabbar after being shown a picture by an Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter. Both said Jabbar was the landlord of the Horseshoe Creek house.
They recalled one occasion Jabbar asked them to keep an eye on the place and he was working on fixing it up.
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Neighbors around the Clarkston address did not recognize Jabbar.
FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge Alethea Duncan said in a news conference that they don’t believe Jabbar was acting alone and are pursuing every lead, including known associates.
Jabbar drove a Ford pickup truck, which appears to have been rented and was carrying an ISIS flag, through a crowd of people on Bourbon Street, killing 15 people and injuring more than 30. Investigators are working to determine any ties to terrorist organizations.
The AJC reviewed a video Jabbar apparently posted on YouTube four years ago in which he promoted his real estate business. He said in the video that he’s from Beaumont and lives in Houston. He said he spent 10 years as a human resources and IT specialist in the military.
— Staff writers Danielle Charbonneau and Jeremy Redmon; senior editors Eric Stirgus and Scott Trubey and Managing Editor Janel Davis contributed to this story
