In the wake of the deadly car attack On bustling Bourbon Street in New Orleans, federal investigators have released a timeline of events surrounding the brazen New Year’s Day incident.
Fourteen people were killed and 35 others were injured after a Ford F-150 truck plowed into pedestrians and opened fire in the early hours of Wednesday morning.
In a press conference held on Thursday, the deputy director of the FBI’s counterterrorism division, Christopher Raia, said that while the investigation into the attack is in its early stages, investigators believe that the suspect, 42 years old. Shamsud-Dim Jabbarhe played alone.
Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, has been identified as the suspect in a New Year’s Day 2025 attack on Bourbon Street in New Orleans that killed at least 15 people.
FBI
Jabbar, a Texas resident who FBI officials said claimed to support the terrorist group ISIS in social media posts before the attack, was killed in a shootout with New Orleans police in the middle of the attack.
Additionally, authorities recovered an ISIS flag from the back of Jabbar’s rental truck after the attack.
He was a U.S.-born citizen and Army veteran who previously worked for the consulting firm Deloitte, according to court records obtained by ABC News.
As a portrait begins to emerge of Jabbar and the potential motivations behind the attack, federal investigators have laid out a timeline of events in what they have labeled an “act of terrorism.”
December 30: Rented a truck in Houston
On Monday, Dec. 30, Jabbar rented a white Ford F-150 truck in Houston, Texas, through the Turo car rental app, officials said.
A black flag with white lettering is placed on the ground behind a truck driven by a man into a crowd on Bourbon Street in New Orleans early Wednesday, Jan. 1, 2025.
Gerald Herbert/AP
December 31: Jabbar drives from Houston to New Orleans
Federal investigators said Tuesday that Jabbar drove from Houston to New Orleans.
The trip takes approximately five and a half hours, over 340 kilometers.
January 1: Jabbar posts pro-ISIS videos on Facebook
At Thursday’s news conference, Raia said federal investigators found that Jabbar had posted five videos on social media “proclaiming support for ISIS.” The videos were posted between 1:29 a.m. CT and 3:02 a.m. CT, according to Raia.
“In the first video, Jabbar explains that he initially intended to harm his family and friends, but was concerned that the news headlines would not focus on the ‘war between believers and unbelievers,'” Raia said.
In one of the videos, Jabbar claimed to have joined ISIS earlier this summer, according to Raia.
Raia called the attack a premeditated “act of terrorism”.
January 1: Bourbon Street attack
At approximately 3:15 a.m., Jabbar drove the rental truck into a blocked-off section of Bourbon Street where pedestrians were celebrating, according to officials.
The suspect mowed down dozens of people in a three-block stretch of the world-famous street as he fired into the crowd, police said.
New Orleans truck attack location
Google Earth map tiles
The attack killed 14 people and wounded 35 others, according to officials, who said Jabbar died during an exchange of gunfire with police.
January 1: The explosives were recovered
After the attack, authorities recovered two improvised explosive devices left in coolers in the Bourbon Street area, Raia said.
FBI investigators arrive at a white Ford F-150 truck that crashed into a work elevator at a crowd of New Year’s Eve partygoers in the French Quarter of New Orleans, Louisiana on January 1, 2025.
Matthew Hinton/AFP via Getty Images
Surveillance footage showed Jabbar placing the devices in coolers, according to Raia. Those were the only devices recovered and both were made safe, he said.
January 1: identify the victims
A young mother teaching her son to read. Former college football player living in New York “on top of the world”. 18 year old aspiring nurse. A father of two remembered as “the life of the party”.
After the fatal event, relatives and friends have begun to identify the 14 people who died in Calle Borboi.
Read more about each victim ABC News coverage here.
January 2: Jabbar’s divorces and financial difficulties emerge
Jabbar had a marital history checkered by multiple divorces and financial hardship, according to court records reviewed by ABC News.
Records also show that after his military service, Jabbar worked for Deloitte, aiming to grow his real estate business.
As of 2022, while working at Deloitte, the documents show Jabbar was making nearly $125,000 a year — a salary that the court had garnished from payments to his children from a past marriage, while further eroding his credit cards and mortgage. the debt
Undated photo of Shamsud-Din Jabbar.
FBI
In 2012, his ex-wife, Nakedra Charrlle Jabbar, successfully sued him for child support payments for the couple’s two daughters, who were 8 and 3 at the time, according to court records.
Four years later, in 2016, Jabbar filed for divorce from another wife, Tiera Symone Jabbar, in Dekalb County, Georgia.
In July 2020, in Fort Bend County, Texas, Jabbar filed for divorce from his third wife, Shaneen Chantil Jabbar, whom he married in November 2017, according to court records.
Read more about Jabbar’s marriages and financial difficulties ABC News coverage here.
ABC News’ Pierre Thomas, Josh Margolin, Aaron Katersky, Luke Barr, Peter Charalambous, Emily Shapiro, Bill Hutchinson, Meredith Deliso and Mary Kekatos contributed to this report.
