The 42-year-old behind the deadly New Year’s Day attack on New Orleans’ Bourbon Street was a real estate agent in Texas at one time, although his license was expired.
Shamsud-Din Jabbar founded a residential and commercial real estate firm called Blue Meadow Properties in Sugar Land, outside Houston.
The firm operated in Beaumont, Fresno, Friendswood, Houston, League City, Missouri City, Pearland and Sugar Land, according to an archive of Blue Meadow’s website from 2021, which named Jabbar the firm’s president. He often posted blogs, writing advice for property owners on how to secure or evict tenants.
Jabbar’s real estate license was activated in February 2019, and Blue Meadow Properties’ in January 2020, according to the Texas Real Estate Commission. The website named the Texas Realtors association as well as the Houston Association of Realtors among its partners and memberships.
“We are deeply saddened to hear about the tragedy in New Orleans,” HAR said in a statement. “The suspect was apparently a real estate agent previously, but we have no other knowledge about him. Our hearts go out to all those affected by this horrific act.”
HAR had no information to provide about Jabbar or his firm. Another affiliate listed on Blue Meadow’s archived website, Sugar Land–based Adriatico Thadhani Investment Group’s CORE Realty, did not immediately respond to request for comment.
Jabbar, a Beaumont native and military veteran, lived in the Houston suburb of Fresno with his wife, after buying a home there in 2017, county records show. He lost it in their divorce in 2022, a lawsuit says.
Shortly after the real estate license for Blue Meadows expired in January 2022, Jabbar said his home payments were $27,000 past due and that he had $16,000 in credit card debt from housing and legal fees, according to a correspondence attached to divorce filings in February 2022 first viewed by The Times-Picayune and nola.com. Jabbar’s license expired a year later, in February 2023.
In the suit, his ex-wife said Jabbar racked up the couple’s debt from “unnecessary spending,” “excessive cash withdrawals” and “gifts to paramours,” the Times-Picayune reported.
Jabbar then lived in north Harris County, where a man was seen surrendering to a SWAT team Wednesday morning outside of his former home. The identity of the man officials apprehended remains unknown.
Jabbar told his landlord, Asia Maryam, that he was relocating to New Orleans a month ago — the landlord said he never gave her or the neighbors any problems, paid his rent each month and worked from home, but she didn’t know what he did for work, she told the Times-Picayune. Jabbar, who had a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Georgia State University, was hired by Deloitte in 2021 and “served in a staff-level role,” the firm told FOX Business.
Investigators believe he rented the truck used in the attack on Dec. 30 in Houston. The attacker sped up on Bourbon Street at about 3:15 a.m. on Jan. 1, plowed through crowds then opened fire before he was killed by police. At least 15 people died in the attack, and dozens more were injured.
A flag of the Islamic State was attached to the truck, and investigators who briefed President Joe Biden said Jabbar posted videos online before the attack indicating he had a “desire to kill.”
Investigators believe Jabbar acted alone, and found no connections with an explosive detonated in a Tesla Cybertruck outside a Trump hotel in Las Vegas later Wednesday.