A person with a profile that did not suggest terrorism, but with strong indications that he drew inspiration from ISIS, is the perpetrator of the bloody attack in downtown New Orleans early Wednesday morning that left 15 dead and dozens injured.

Samsoud bin Jabbar, who was killed in the shootout with police officers shortly after the attack on pedestrians on Bourbon Street, had served for years in the U.S. Army.

Just hours before his heinous act, he had posted material on social media in which he said he wanted to kill and that he drew inspiration from ISIS terrorists. This is exactly what Joe Biden explicitly referred to in his talk in a speech in the early hours of Thursday morning in which he said that the relevant authorities are seriously looking into this aspect as well.

In the first video from the moment of the terrorist attack, the white car driven by the 42-year-old is seen driving down a New Orleans street when it suddenly turns right and builds up speed, causing death.

Profile of the perpetrator

Jabbar, who was killed during a shootout with police, was 42, a resident of Texas, where he rented the truck he drove into the New Year’s Day crowd in New Orleans.

At the time of the attack, he was reportedly carrying an ISIS flag, which is why he is being considered for connection, and was reportedly wearing a bulletproof vest.

Jabbar for a total of 13 years (the last five as a reservist), while he had about a year in a unit in Afghanistan.

Specifically, he had served from March 2007 to January 2015, first as a Human Resource Specialist and then as an Information Technology Specialist.

From February 2009 to January 2010, he served in Afghanistan.

He remained in the Army as a Reservist with a Technology Specialist until July 2020, when he left with excellent conduct.

He had risen to the rank of sergeant.

In August 2004, he had joined the US Navy but was discharged a month later, never going to boot camp. A Navy spokesman told CNN that Jabbar had joined a program whose members serve without having gone through training (Delayed Entry Program). They can resign at any time they wish, without consequence.

Local Texas records show that the 42-year-old was charged years ago with two misdemeanors. Specifically, in 2002 he was arrested in Texas for misdemeanor theft. Three years later, he was arrested by Beaumont police for driving with an invalid license, also a misdemeanor.

In recent years, as the Associated Press investigation showed, Jabbar has had financial difficulties.

He was $27,000 behind on house payments while trying to quickly finalize his divorce, which was finally finalized in September 2024. His business finances were problematic. Blue Meadow Properties LLC, lost about $28,000 in the past year, and two others he started – Jabbar Real Estate Holdings LLC and BDQ L3C – had no value.

His divorce was finalized in September 2024.

The videos of his intentions

Hours before the attack – and this was a cat that both Baden and the FBI pointed out – the shooter posted videos on social media showing that he was inspired by ISIS and expressed a “desire to kill.”

The videos appear to have been filmed while driving through the night to New Orleans, meaning from Texas to Louisiana, though the exact time is not yet clear.

In them he makes reference to his divorce and how he had originally planned to gather his family ostensibly for a “celebration” with the intention of killing them. He also talked about how he changed his plans and said he joined ISIS. He even mentioned various dreams he had about why he should join ISIS.

In all directions the investigation

The FBI is treating the Jabbar attack as a terrorist attack, although for now there are unanswered questions about the motives of the perpetrator.

As for the search for accomplices or other connections, the FBI said it does not believe Jabbar was “solely responsible” for the deadly attack and asked for the public’s help in identifying his associates.

Meanwhile, searches are underway in the vicinity of a Houston residence that appears to be associated with Jabbar. As of yet, however, police have not made any arrests.

Biden also made it clear that the investigation is ongoing and that things are fluid, so it’s too early to draw conclusions.

Biden’s reference to the incident in Las Vegas involving the explosion in a Tesla Cybertruck outside Donald Trump’s hotel was interesting. We’re also looking at the incident and whether it’s related to the one in New Orleans, though there’s nothing to link them at this time, Joe Biden explained.

Meanwhile, Trump has sought to use the attack to push his own anti-immigrant agenda. He let the US president-elect falsely imply that the attacker was not American, saying that “the criminals that are coming in are far worse than the criminals we have in our country.”

The danger of lone wolves

CNN reports that the investigation comes as current and former officials have publicly warned in recent months about ISIS recruitment efforts and that the U.S. is at risk from lone-wolf terrorist attacks.

They are particularly concerned about propaganda and recruitment efforts by ISIS’s Afghan branch, ISIS-K, especially since the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan has left the government with fewer intelligence-gathering capabilities.

Although officials believe that ISIS-K is primarily seeking to radicalize and inspire rather than train and deploy operatives, the group’s rise to prominence is a relatively new phenomenon. This means there is much that analysts don’t know about its strategy, recruitment efforts, and operational tactics.