Until now, the city of Beaumont had earned its small place in United States history because it was where the first oil well was drilled in 1901, which would eventually become one of the largest industries in that territory: hydrocarbons.
From yesterday, Beaumont has another reason for fame, although this time tragic: it is where Shamsud-Din Jabbar was born on October 26, 1982, the man who killed at least fifteen people by ramming a Ford T-150 electric pick-up van into the crowd celebrating the start of the year at the intersection of Bourbon and Canal streets in New Orleans - although the FBI believes he did not act alone. Jabbar was, therefore, American. In fact, it seems that he spent most of his life in Texas, with the possible exception of the approximately ten years he served in the Army of his country, where he did not engage in combat missions, although he was stationed in Afghanistan in 2009, during the escalation in the war carried out by Barack Obama. His tasks in the Armed Forces were related to human resources and information technologies. During his assignment in Afghanistan, he was promoted to the rank of sergeant.
Subsequently, he was discharged without any issues or complaints from his superiors and reintegrated into civilian life. Currently, he resided in the city of Houston, the largest in Texas, about a six-hour drive from New Orleans. The police surrounded Jabbar's house last night with a huge deployment until a man with his arms raised came out, it is unknown if that person has been taken into custody or has any connection to the attack.
Jabbar being American undermines baseless accusations like those of the president-elect, Donald Trump, who rushed to post a message on his Truth social network proclaiming that "criminals coming from outside are worse than the ones we have at home." Even greater was the mistake (or manipulation attempt) of the neo-fascist congresswoman Margaret Taylor Greene, who even went as far as giving details on how Jabbar allegedly crossed the border from Mexico on December 29. Taylor Greene's message is a prime example of how manipulation works on social media, as it starts with a "it is said that..." - similar to the "a lot of people are saying" often used by Donald Trump - before going into exhaustive details, even indicating the town through which Jabbar would have entered from Mexico.
In reality, Jabbar entered the US from his mother's womb in Beaumont. His family was originally from the Middle East. But it does not seem that they were Muslims, or if they were, that the terrorist had a strict religious upbringing. As in many other cases of Islamic fundamentalists, his conversion came when he was already an adult.
Jabbar married and divorced twice. His first separation was in 2012; the second, two years ago. According to the 'New York Times', in the second divorce trial, the future terrorist declared a series of financial problems, partly due to a $16,000 credit he said he had taken out to cover legal expenses and to acquire a second residence. From his first marriage, to a woman named Nakendra Charrlle, he had two daughters, aged 15 and 20. Judging by the divorce documents examined by the Texan newspaper 'Houston Chronicle', Jabbar also had children with his second wife, to whom he paid a monthly child support of $1,353 for the care of their children.
According to the New York newspaper, by the time of the second divorce, Jabbar was already immersed in the spiral of Islamic fundamentalism. Charrlle's current husband, Dwayne Marsh, has stated that the Bourbon Street killer converted to Islam and "went crazy," to the point that he and his wife denied him the right to visit their two daughters a few months ago.
Despite his claims of financial difficulties in the second separation, it does not seem that Jabbar had reasons to struggle financially. According to the Texan newspaper 'Houston Chronicle', in 2020 he reported gross income of $120,000 as a contractor for the consulting giant Deloitte.