A New York Times freelance writer on Thursday discussed a college newspaper interview he did years ago with Shamsud-Din Jabbar, saying he didn’t seem like the type of person to carry out a New Year’s Eve terrorist attack in New Orleans.
Keenan spoke to CNN host Paula Newton early Thursday morning about the moment he learned the suspect in the deaths of 15 people after they deliberately drove their truck down Bourbon Street was the same man he interviewed in 2015 for Georgia State University’s campus newspaper.
“My head was spinning,” Keenan told the host, adding, “What little I remember from that interview he was a very cool, calm and collected guy.”
Jabbar attended Georgia State from 2015 to 2017 and earned a bachelor’s degree in computer information systems. Keenan interviewed him for a 2015 article on college veteran life.
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New York Times Independent Contributor Sean Keenan spoke to CNN about an interview with a suspect in the New Orleans terror attack nearly a decade ago. (Screenshot/CNN)
“Nothing about his character raised any flags,” the reporter said.
The authorities say 42-year-old Jabbar drove his truck through the crowd gathered on New Orleans’ famous Bourbon Street at around 3:15 a.m. Wednesday, when they clocked the year 2025. The suspect was a US-born citizen who lived in Houston, Texas.
After making his way through the crowd, Jabbar exited the vehicle and exchanged fire with law enforcement. The suspect was killed in the confrontation. Materials for making bombs were reportedly found in a New Orleans Airbnb suspected to have been rented by Jabbar prior to the attack. Authorities currently believe that Jabbar acted alone in carrying out the attack and that he was inspired by the terrorist organization Islamic State (ISIS).
The suspect was married twice and had two children. The FBI revealed that Jabbar also served in the US Army as a human resources specialist and information technology (IT) specialist from March 2007 to January 2015, and served in the Army Reserves as an IT specialist from January 2015 to July 2020 .
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Investigators search a rental home used by Shamsud-Din Jabbar in New Orleans, Louisiana, Thursday, Jan. 2, 2024. Multiple people are dead and dozens injured after Jabbar drove his car into a crowd of New Year’s revelers on Bourbon Street in Wednesday. (Kat Ramirez for Fox News Digital)
During his time in the military, he was deployed to Afghanistan from February 2009 to January 2010. The FBI believes he was honorably discharged.
Keenan told CNN that his shock at learning that Jabbar was capable of such an attack was shared by other people who knew him.
“Many of my New York Times colleagues have spoken to family and friends and they tell you this was a wild 180,” he said.
Keenan went on to describe the Jabbar he spoke to as having a “reserved demeanor.”
“He was a little distant in a way that, you know, sometimes you see with veterans who have had tough schedules,” the reporter said, adding that he was “still processing it all.”
Keenan described a 2015 interview with Jabbar New York Times article after the attack. In it, the reporter stated that Jabbar told him that he was having trouble adjusting to life after the military.
Investigators continue to block Bourbon Street in New Orleans, Louisiana, Thursday, Jan. 2, 2024. Multiple people are dead and dozens injured after a man drove his car into a crowd of New Year’s revelers on Wednesday. (Audrey Conklin/Fox News Digital)
“Mr. Jabbar complained that the complexity of the Department of Veterans Affairs bureaucracy sometimes made it difficult for veterans to receive their tuition and other educational benefits through the GI Bill, and that even one missing signature or sheet of paper could affect a benefit claimant,” Keenan recalled. .
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The reporter noted that Jabbar’s other complaint was that it was difficult to “communicate without adhering to the military jargon he picked up during his years in the service — and that this can make it difficult for veterans when they apply for civilian jobs.”
