Kankakee Times

State Representative Jackie Haas said, "We are grateful for the hard work being done by local, state, and federal investigators as more information continues to emerge in this tragic and horrific event." She made the statement in a January 1 Facebook post.

"Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims of the New Year terrorist attack in New Orleans," said J Haas, according to Facebook. "We are grateful for the hard work being done by local, state, and federal investigators as more information continues to emerge in this tragic and horrific event."

In her post, Haas shared a link to a Fox32 report confirming the identity of the man who drove through a crowd of New Year’s partiers on Bourbon Street on New Year’s Day. At least 14 people were killed before 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Bahar Jabbar died in a shootout with police. The self-proclaimed ISIS supporter rented a truck and drove around a police car that was blocking traffic, then plowed into the celebrating crowd. Three officers returned fire when Jabbar fired on them. Two were shot but remain in stable condition. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) says that Jabbar acted alone.

Screenshot of State Rep. Jackie Haas' Jan. 1 Facebook post | State Representative Jackie Haas' Facebook page

According to a timeline from Fox32, Jabbar picked up the rented truck on December 30 in Houston and traveled to New Orleans the next day. Between 1:29 a.m. and 3:02 a.m. on December 31, he posted five videos where he expressed support for ISIS before driving into the crowd around 3:15 a.m.

A January 1 report from NBC News indicated that Shamsud-Din Jabbar worked with Deloitte since 2021 and had rented a Ford F-150 Lightning truck from car-sharing network Turo. NBC News reports that Turo does not believe his criminal background identified him as a security threat. The FBI is investigating this incident and said that inside the Lightning and in the French Quarter, there were weapons and potential improvised explosive devices (IEDs). The FBI did not know at that point whether the IEDs were planted or operable. He served in the Army from 2006-2015 and in the Army Reserve from 2015-2020 when he was honorably discharged. He deployed to Afghanistan in 2009 as an administrative clerk.

Haas was elected to represent Illinois’ 79th House District in December 2020. She is CEO of the Helen Wheeler Center for Community Health and has previously worked as a social worker at Riverside Medical Center. Haas holds a Bachelor of Social Work from Valparaiso University and a Master of Social Work from the University of Illinois-Chicago.