Alarmed by the radicalization of Houstonian Shamsud-Din Jabbar – who traveled to neighboring Louisiana to kill 14 people in New Orleans- Texas Governor Greg Abbott has directed the “Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) to surge Texas Anti-Terrorism Task Force resources to aggressively combat radical jihadist terrorism.”
US Passport photo of Shamsud-Din Jabbar of Houston – who killed 14 people in New Orleans in an act of ISIS-inspired terrorism.Photo byWikimedia
Jabbar – a Texas-born former US Army soldier who was raised in Beaumont as a Christian – pledged his allegiance to ISIS in a video he recorded before attacking New Year revelers in the French Quarter on January 1, 2025.
Jabbar serving as the information technology team chief for the 82nd Airborne Division’s 1st Brigade Combat Team at Ft. Polk in 2013.Photo byUS Army (File Photo) / via wikimedia
Jabbar had escaped the attention of US and Texas anti-terrorism authorities before committing the terrorist attack – a fact that was not lost on Governor Abbott.