An Army Veteran's Path To Radicalization Followed Divorces, Struggling Businesses In Texas

Shamsud-Din Jabbar grew up in Texas, joined the U.S. Army and eventually settled in Houston, where he spun up a real estate business and made 120,000 a year for one of the world's largest consulting firms.

But the 42-year-old U.S. citizen, who authorities say plowed a rented truck through New Year's revelers in New Orleans before being shot and killed by police, also faced pressures. He finalized a third divorce in 2022, saying in filings he couldn't pay his mortgage and his business was losing money.

On Thursday, authorities and relatives were still piecing together why Jabbar barreled through a crowd in a Ford F-150 on Bourbon Street, killing 14 revelers and injuring at least 30 others. Officials said the attack was inspired by the Islamic State group, making it one of the deadliest IS-inspired assaults on U.S. soil in years.

FBI officials said Jabbar posted five videos to his Facebook account in the hours before the attack in which he aligned himself with IS. Authorities also found an Islamic State flag on the truck used 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, one of his brothers, told The Associated Press on Thursday at his home in Beaumont, about 90 miles outside Houston.