This undated and unlocated handout picture launched by the FBI on January 1, 2025 exhibits a photograph of deceased New Orleans assault suspect Shamsud-Din Jabbar.
– | Afp | Getty Photographs
A U.S. Military veteran from Texas who drove to Louisiana and intentionally plowed into New Yr’s revelers in New Orleans recorded movies through the drive addressed to his household, wherein he talked about plans to kill them and informed them he had joined ISIS.
“I needed to document 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 do not need you to assume I spared you willingly.”
He informed his household that he had first needed to prepare a “celebration” for them and make everybody “witness the killing of the apostates,” an obvious reference to killing them.
A senior legislation enforcement official, talking on situation of anonymity to debate delicate data, confirmed to NBC Information the contents of the movies, which had been first reported by The New York Occasions. NBC Information has not independently reviewed the movies.
Jabbar, 42, drove a rented truck from Houston to New Orleans on New Yr’s Eve, authorities stated, posting movies on-line alongside the way in which. As soon as he reached New Orleans’ well-known Bourbon Road, 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.
Specialists stated the small print which have emerged about Jabbar align with the everyday sample of how a veteran can be radicalized to violence.
Within the years main as much as Wednesday’s assault, Jabbar skilled his third divorce, accrued important debt and misplaced his company job. Divorce courtroom information from January 2022 reveal he was going through enterprise losses and bank card debt within the tens of 1000’s 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, in response to filings within the case.
Whereas it might not have shocked consultants, Jabbar’s rampage has bewildered his household, buddies and colleagues, who described him as variety and unassuming.
“It is a full shock, a shock to everybody,” Jabbar’s half brother, Abdur-Rahim Jabbar IV, 24, stated in an interview this week.
It is not clear when Jabbar first grew to become interested in ISIS. Abdur-Rahim Jabbar shared that their father was Muslim and Shamsud-Din Jabbar’s mom, who was Christian, transformed once they married. Jabbar was open about his Muslim religion however did not focus on it in a forceful approach.
The 2 hardly ever talked about faith, he stated, although they did focus on the struggle 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 grow to be 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 “Devil’s Voice,” wherein he condemned music as “the voice of Devil,” claiming it led individuals into forbidden acts like drug use and violence.
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