A 42-year-old Texas consultant named Shamsud-Din Jabbar drove through a crowd of New Year’s revelers in New Orleans as they celebrated the beginning of 2025 — flying an ISIS flag from the hitch of his rented pickup while killing 14 and injuring another 30.

On the 350-mile drive from Houston to the Big Easy, Jabbar recorded selfie videos declaring his allegiance to ISIS and saying he initially planned to kill his own friends and family but decided on attacking innocent members of the public in order to attract more attention to what he called a “war between the believers and the disbelievers,” according to the FBI.

He was a U.S. Army veteran and had a lucrative job at a major consulting firm, but he brought a pair of IEDs and two firearms with him to attack civilians — allegedly radicalized in just weeks. And authorities are warning of similar lone wolf attacks and how deadly they can be, as New Orleans officials work to bolster security following the ramming attack on its iconic, pedestrian-packed Bourbon Street.

“ISIS and others are back,” James Jay Carafano, an expert on national security and foreign policy, warned in a recent Fox News op-ed. “Biden’s humiliating withdrawal from Afghanistan reignited the hope that America really was the paper tiger that Usama Bin Laden claimed we were.”

But even after its defeat, the terror group continues to maintain an online presence that includes propaganda videos and a weekly newsletter, according to the Times report.

A member loyal to the Islamic State waves an ISIS flag in Raqqa June 29, 2014. (REUTERS/Stringer)

Roughly a year before Jabbar’s rampage, ISIS propagandists urged supporters to invade people’s homes and “kill them wherever you find them,” Voice of America reported at the time. 

Counter-terror investigators have been fighting lone wolves inspired by such campaigns for years, Mauro said.

He’s calls it a “loser-to-lion” syndrome — radicalized lone wolves who have nothing going for them become convinced they can achieve martyrdom through acts of terror.

But even with increased surveillance and awareness of the issue, attackers can slip through the cracks.

In another New Year’s attack, on Dec. 31, 2022, a 19-year-old Maine man named Trevor Bickford drove to New York City and attacked three police officers with a machete while shouting “Allahu akbar.”

He had reportedly been on the FBI’s radar already, and earlier that year became radicalized and decided to “wage jihad.” He is serving a 27-year prison sentence.

Fox News’ Audrey Conklin contributed to this report.