HARRIS COUNTY, Texas — As we continue to do a deep dive on the Houston man who killed 14 people and injured more than 30 in New Orleans’ French Quarter Wednesday, we’ve uncovered new details about his personal life.
Shamsud-Din Jabbar was well-liked in high school, went to college and served in the military. As an adult, he left behind a trail of failed marriages and failed businesses.
After serving his country honorably, Jabbar pledged allegiance to the Islamic State, a terrorist group that he said inspired him.
Those who knew Jabbar along the way were stunned that he could commit such an evil act.
Early years
Jabbar was born and raised in Beaumont, Texas, east of Houston.
A high school friend said he came from a loving family.
Jabbar’s younger brother told the Beaumont CBS station that his brother’s actions completely blindsided and devastated their family.
“I just dropped my phone and crawled into a corner somewhere and started crying,” he said.
With an 18-year age gap, Jabbar says he and his brother weren’t always close, but that changed after their father suffered a stroke in 2023.
“He was coming around a little more often to check on him and if it’s anything he needed.”
He said Jabbar only visited Beaumont two or three times a year and he hadn’t seen him in about six months.
Jabbar graduated from Central High School in Beaumont ISD in 2001.
“He was well respected, carried himself well and I mean, you just wouldn’t think that he would do something like this,” Mike Roach told KBMT, KHOU 11’s sister station in Beaumont.
Another friend in Beaumont spoke with our sister station after meeting with Jabbar’s family.
“And I just arrived here to mention my condolences, my sadness, my shock — shock and anger a little bit,” he said. “Just surprised because this is not how we know Shamsud-Din.”
His friend is also angry at ISIS, the terrorist organization that Jabbar said inspired him.
“I’d love to get my hands on whoever influenced him,” the friend said. “To think that an act or acts that he did were OK — it’s not OK.”
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Military and college
According to CNN, Jabbar served in the Army for over a decade as a human resource specialist and information technology specialist. He deployed to Afghanistan from February 2009 to January 2010, an Army spokesperson told CNN.
Jabbar was on active duty until 2015 and served in the Army Reserve until 2020.
After leaving active duty, he attended Georgia State University with help from the GI Bill, which covers the cost of college for veterans.
In a 2015 interview with the Georgia State student newspaper, Jabbar said adjusting to life outside of the military isn’t easy.
“You may have a lot of skills and training from the Army,” Jabbar said. “But you may not be able to speak the language to really translate it and be understood when you apply for a civilian job.”
Jabbar’s personal life
- Jabbar had three ex-wives and three children, two girls and a boy.
- He married his first wife in 2008 in Jefferson County. They had two daughters who are now 20 and 15. We don’t know exactly when they divorced but records show the ex-wife filed for child support in 2012.
- Jabbar’s second marriage was in 2013. They had no children and divorced in 2016 in Dekalb County, Georgia.
- Jabbar married his third wife in 2017 in Fort Bend County and they had a son. According to divorce court records, a judge granted a temporary restraining order at her request.
In 2022, she accused Jabbar of excessive cash withdrawals, gifts to paramours and unreasonable spending.
Investigators said Jabbar made reference to his divorce in videos and said he planned to gather his family for a “celebration” before killing them but changed his mind and decided to join ISIS instead.
He posted five videos on Facebook as he drove from Houston to New Orleans on New Year’s Eve and said he joined ISIS last summer.
Work history and money troubles
Divorce records show that in January 2022, Shamsud-Din Jabbar was $27,000 behind on house payments.
“I have exhausted all means of bringing the loan current other than a loan modification, leaving us no alternative but to sell the house or allow it to go into foreclosure,” he wrote in an email to his ex-wife’s attorney.
He was later evicted from an apartment in Cypress.
Jabbar’s businesses were struggling, too. One, Blue Meadow Properties LLC, lost about $28,000 over the previous year. Two others he started, Jabbar Real Estate Holdings LLC and BDQ L3C, weren’t worth anything.
He had a brief career in real estate but his license expired in 2023.
More recently, Jabbar worked for Deloitte, which provides audit, tax and consulting services. Deloitte Managing Director Jonathan Gandal sent KHOU 11 the following statement Wednesday night.
“We are shocked to learn of reports today that the individual identified as a suspect had any association with our firm. The named individual served in a staff-level role since being hired in 2021. Like everyone, we are outraged by this shameful and senseless act of violence and are doing all we can to assist authorities in their investigation.”
Neighbor and Army buddy shocked
It’s not clear how long Jabbar had lived in Houston but a neighbor said he moved into a modest home on Crescent Peak Drive near TC Jester in north Harris County about a year ago.
The man, who didn’t want to show his face or use his name, told KHOU 11 that it’s a quiet, religious community and Jabbar mostly kept to himself.
“I asked him a couple of times and he says he prays at home,” the neighbor said.
He told us he saw Jabbar on New Year’s Eve and the white truck was only parked at his home for one night. He said there were no signs of radical behavior.
“Calm, collected, don’t talk much, very quiet person, don’t interrupt us we don’t interrupt him.”
FBI agents spent all night searching the home before leaving Thursday morning. We don’t know what they found.
RELATED: FBI says search completed at north Harris County home linked to Bourbon Street attacker
An Army buddy in the Houston area said the news left him speechless. A shelf in his Cypress-area home holds many of Trevor Neill’s military mementos, including from a stint at the former Fort Gordon in Georgia where he first met Jabbar.
“He was a normal individual, no red flags, great soldier, phenomenal friend,” Neill told KHOU 11 on Thursday.
He lost contact with Jabbar in recent years but thought his old friend was doing well until he saw the news reports.
“I was absolutely floored, I buckled and I couldn’t talk for like 20 or 30 seconds, was just like, ‘Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God,” Neill said. “And it’s very unfortunate that he took that path.”