HOUSTON — The terrorist who killed 15 people when he plowed his truck down crowded Bourbon Street in New Orleans was an American-born military veteran who was living in a run-down trailer park where he kept sheep and goats in the yard — just blocks away from the local mosque.
Authorities say Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, from Houston, had an ISIS flag strapped to the rented Ford F-150 Lightning EV truck he used to carry out an act of premeditated terror on New Year’s Day.
Shamsud Din Jabbar was a US-born military veteran who went from success to a squalid Houston trailer park where sheep roamed his yard.
He served in the Army for more than a decade and deployed to Afghanistan before he carried out his ISIS-inspired attack on Wednesday, according to his service record.
Working as an IT specialist, he was stationed in Afghanistan from February 2009 until January 2010, the service branch said in a summary of military experience.
Jabbar served active duty from March 2007 until January 2015 and was a reservist from January 2015 until July 2020.
He left the service at the rank of staff sergeant, according to the Army.
In a YouTube video he posted in 2020 for his real estate business, a clean-cut Jabbar described himself as a reliable, trustworthy native Texan who spent 10 years in the military, which taught him “the meaning of great service.”
But when he carried out the terror attack — one of the deadliest since 9/11 — Jabbar lived in a squalid trailer park on the outskirts of Houston that is home to mostly Muslim immigrants.
Geese, chickens, and sheep roamed freely in Jabbar’s yard when The Post visited hours after the attack.
One neighbor told The Post she spoke only Urdu, Pakistan’s national language.
The neighborhood is also within walking distance of the local mosque, Masjid Bilal — where no one answered the telephone on Wednesday.
Law enforcement sources told The Post that they found videos Jabbar made where he referenced the Quran — Islam’s holy text.
Jabbar traveled to Egypt for 10 days last year, officials told the Post.
By mid-afternoon the feds swooped in — kicking The Post and other journalists out of the area and cordoning it off.
Dozens of police vehicles swarmed the neighborhood, including an armored, military-style truck.
Initially, residents were allowed past the barriers, although The Post heard one agent telling a family to “take your kids and leave,” and another order of “get your hands up!” blasted over a loudspeaker.
In brief conversations before the lockdown, his neighbors seemed to know little about him.
Francois Venegas described Jabbar as a “simple person” who kept to himself, though they would occasionally exchange words on the street.
“[He was] pretty quiet…Just walking, [he would say] ‘hello,’ ‘hola,’ and that was it,” Venegas said.
Jabbar had been arrested twice: Once in Katy, Texas, for theft in 2002, court records show, and again three years later for driving without a valid license, the New York Times reported.
He had also been divorced twice, and the failed marriages apparently left him in financial ruin.
Jabbar’s first wife sued him for child support payments in 2012, court records show.
Amid his second divorce in 2022, he said he had racked up more than $16,000 in credit card debt paying court fees and expenses for a second home, according to an email to his ex-wife’s lawyer viewed by the Times.
“I cannot afford the house payment,” he wrote.
He added that his real estate business suffered more than $28,000 in losses the previous year.
His first wife, Nakedra Jabbar, has since remarried, and she and her new husband were cooperating with investigators, her husband’s father, Nelson Marsh Sr., told the New York Post.
