BEAUMONT, Texas – Shamsud-Din Jabbar grew up in Texas, joined the U.S. Army and eventually settled in Houston, where he began an actual estate business and earned $120,000 a yr for certainly one of the most important consulting firms on this planet.
But the 42-year-old US citizen, who authorities say plowed a rented truck through New Year's celebrations in New Orleans before being shot by police, was also under pressure. In 2022, he divorced for the third time, stating in his filings that he couldn’t pay his mortgage and his business was losing money.
On Thursday, authorities and relations were still wondering why Jabbar drove a Ford F-150 through a crowd on Bourbon Street, killing 14 revelers and injuring no less than 30 others. Officials said the attack was inspired by the Islamic State group, making it certainly one of the deadliest IS-inspired attacks on U.S. soil in years.
FBI officials said Jabbar posted five videos on his Facebook account through which he joined ISIS within the hours before the attack. Authorities also found an Islamic State flag on the truck utilized in the attack early Wednesday.
“It's completely contradictory to who he was and how his family and his friends know him,” Abdur-Rahim Jabbar, certainly one of his brothers, told The on Thursday at his home in Beaumont, about 90 miles outside of Houston Associated Press.
The 24-year-old said his older brother had turn into increasingly isolated from family and friends in recent times, but in conversation he had seen no signs of radicalization. He said it had been a number of months since he had seen his brother in person and a number of weeks since they’d spoken on the phone.
“There seemed to be nothing wrong with his behavior. He didn't seem angry or anything. “He was just his calm, well-mannered, well-tempered self,” the younger brother said.
Law enforcement officials said that after Jabbar drove into the gang on Bourbon Street and crashed the truck, he got out of the automobile wearing a ballistic vest and helmet and fired at police, wounding no less than two before he was shot by officers who returned fire.
Army, court and other public records paint an image of a person who was stationed or lived in several states, including North Carolina, Texas, Georgia and Alaska, married multiple times and seemed to be struggling financially as he tried to slot in stuck to civilian life.
Jabbar joined the Army in 2007, served on lively duty in human resources and knowledge technology and was stationed in Afghanistan from 2009 to 2010, the service said. He joined the Army Reserve in 2015 and left in 2020 with the rank of staff sergeant.
A spokesperson for Georgia State University confirmed that Jabbar attended the varsity from 2015 to 2017 and graduated with a bachelor's degree in computer information systems in 2017.
He has been married no less than thrice within the last twenty years and had no less than three children mentioned in divorce and custody agreements. His last two marriages, in Georgia and Texas, each lasted about three years, in response to court documents.
Dwayne Marsh, who’s married to certainly one of Jabbar's ex-wives, told The New York Times that Jabbar had been behaving erratically in recent months. Marsh said he and his wife not allowed the 2 daughters she shared with Jabbar to spend time with him.
The AP left a message Thursday at a number listed for Marsh. Messages were also left for Jabbar's other two ex-wives at their numbers or with their lawyers.
The AP also left messages for Jabbar's mother that weren’t returned as of Thursday afternoon. Abdur-Rahim Jabbar said her father refused to talk to reporters.
The divorce files also reveal that Jabbar was facing a deteriorating financial situation in January 2022. Jabbar said he was $27,000 behind on his house payments and desired to finalize the divorce quickly.
“I have exhausted all means to get the loan back on track other than a loan modification, leaving us with no choice but to sell the home or allow foreclosure,” he wrote in a January 2022 email to the attorney his now ex-wife.
His businesses were also struggling. One company, Blue Meadow Properties LLC, lost about $28,000 in 2021. Two other firms he founded, Jabbar Real Estate Holdings LLC and BDQ L3C, were worthless. According to the e-mail, he had also accrued $16,000 in bank card debt as a consequence of expenses resembling legal fees.
Court documents show he earned about $10,000 a month in 2022 doing business development and other work for the consulting firm Deloitte.
On Wednesday, police blocked access to a Houston neighborhood where Jabbar's last address was listed, a small white mobile home in a gated community where geese and goats roamed the grass. On Thursday, the FBI said it had accomplished its search of the realm but didn’t provide further details.
Despite the turmoil revealed in court documents, Abdur-Rahim Jabbar said his brother showed no outward signs of distress or anger over his relationships.
“I think he mostly blamed himself for his divorces. … And he was never bitter toward his ex-wives,” the younger Jabbar said.
“I never saw that coming. And in the military, I actually worked in counterterrorism. And if any warning signs had emerged, I would have caught them and contacted the relevant authorities,” he said.
“But he didn’t give me anything that suggested he was capable of doing what happened.”
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