NEW ORLEANS -- We are beginning to get a more detailed picture of the suspect in the terror attack on New Orleans' French Quarter, who was identified Wednesday by the FBI as 42-year-old Shamsud-din Jabbar.
Jabbar said in a 2020 video posted on YouTube that he was born and raised in Beaumont, Texas.
The FBI said he served in the US military and was honorably discharged.
"I've been here all my life with the exception of traveling for the military where I spent 10 years as a human resources specialist and IT specialist, where I learned the meaning of great service," Jabbar said in the YouTube video promoting his Houston-based real estate company.
"What really sets me apart from other agents, is my ability to one, be a fierce negotiator," Jabbar said in the video.
Other soldiers who served with him as an IT specialist in the Army Signal Corps say he was the top of his class at Fort Gordon, Georgia.
Peter Heap of Huntsville, Ala., served six years in the Louisiana National Guard and the last 18 years on active duty before retiring in 2024 as an Army sergeant. He took an IT class with Jabbar in 2010 and for the next decade or more, they remained Facebook friends.
"I mean from day one you can tell that his knowledge in the IT field was better than everyone else's," Heap said. "I still thought that he was still a somewhat good guy. He was genuine. He was nice."
Trevor Neill of Cypress, Texas, also took the IT class with Jabbar in Georgia. He served 11 years in the military and said the students in the the high-level IT training course were extremely tight-knit for the six months they were together.
"It was only six or seven of us, and we had study sessions together, we'd hang out, go out to eat," Neill said. "Jabbar was super-super smart and he was just a cool guy, talked about sports and music and IT stuff."
Neill said he last spoke with Jabbar in 2018. He said he was "floored" when he learned the suspect in the terror attack was his old friend.
"I couldn't talk for like 20 seconds," Neill said. "I can only tell you the Jabbar I know. He was a cool guy. No hatred coming out of his mouth. He was the last person I think would do this."
Public records show Jabbar was also an active American citizen, voting in the 2020 presidential election.
Heap said Jabbar did make pro-Islamic posts on Facebook, but nothing radical.
"I would not categorize him as being a Muslim extremist at that time when I knew him. Not at all," Heap said. "I think sometime between when I knew him and now, he got radicalized."
Now, the FBI now says he's the same man who drove a pickup truck with an ISIS flag mounted in the back, and committed a heinous act of terror.
The FBI says he's the driver who mowed down dozens of people on Bourbon Street after 3 a.m. on New Year's 2025.
The same man in military gear, who fired on officers and ended up here, lying dead in the street like many of his alleged victims.
The FBI in Houston and the Harris County Sheriff's Office later confirmed taking action at a cluster of trailer homes at the corner of Crescent Peak Drive and Hugh Road. It's the same intersection public records show as Jabbar's last known address.