A U.S. Army veteran from Texas who drove to Louisiana and intentionally plowed into New Year’s revelers in New Orleans recorded movies through the drive addressed to his household, during which he talked about plans to kill them and advised them he had joined ISIS.
“I needed to file this message for my household,” Shamsud-Din Jabbar stated within the movies. “I needed you to know that I joined ISIS earlier this yr.”
He then added: “I don’t need you to assume I spared you willingly.”
He advised his household that he had first needed to arrange a “celebration” for them and make everybody “witness the killing of the apostates,” an obvious reference to killing them.
A senior regulation enforcement official, talking on situation of anonymity to debate delicate info, confirmed to NBC News the contents of the movies, which had been first reported by The New York Times. NBC News has not independently reviewed the movies.
Jabbar, 42, drove a rented truck from Houston to New Orleans on New Year’s Eve, authorities stated, posting movies on-line alongside the way in which. Once he reached New Orleans’ well-known Bourbon Street, he planted two improvised explosive gadgets after which bought again into his truck and plowed into revelers at around 3:15 a.m., killing 14 people before police killed him in a shootout.
Experts stated the small print which have emerged about Jabbar align with the standard sample of how a veteran can be radicalized to violence.
In the years main as much as Wednesday’s assault, Jabbar skilled his third divorce, accrued important debt and misplaced his company job. Divorce courtroom data from January 2022 reveal he was going through enterprise losses and bank card debt within the tens of hundreds of {dollars}, together with greater than $27,000 in overdue mortgage funds. By August of that yr, his financial institution accounts held simply $2,012, based on filings within the case.
While it could not have stunned consultants, Jabbar’s rampage has bewildered his household, buddies and colleagues, who described him as variety and unassuming.
“It’s a whole shock, a shock to everybody,” Jabbar’s half brother, Abdur-Rahim Jabbar IV, 24, stated in an interview this week.
It’s not clear when Jabbar first turned interested in ISIS. Abdur-Rahim Jabbar shared that their father was Muslim and Shamsud-Din Jabbar’s mom, who was Christian, transformed after they married. Jabbar was open about his Muslim religion however didn’t focus on it in a forceful approach.
The two hardly ever talked about faith, he stated, although they did focus on the warfare in Gaza final yr. Jabbar expressed being upset in regards to the state of affairs, calling it “genocide on each side.”
After his most up-to-date divorce, Jabbar appeared to develop into extra religious, although he by no means mentioned ISIS or any radical ideologies. His half brother described him as “looking for himself.”
In early 2024, Jabbar posted audio messages on SoundCloud, together with one titled “Satan’s Voice,” during which he condemned music as “the voice of Satan,” claiming it led individuals into forbidden acts like drug use and violence.
