A U.S. Army veteran from Texas who traveled to Louisiana and deliberately crashed into New Year’s Eve revelers in New Orleans recorded videos addressed to his family during the drive, in which he spoke of his plans to kill them and told them he had joined ISIS.
“I wanted to record this message for my family,” Shamsud-Din Jabbar said in the videos. “I wanted you to know that I joined ISIS earlier this year.”
He then added: “I don’t want you to think that I spared you on purpose. »
He told his family that he had initially wanted to hold a “celebration” for them and have everyone “witness the murder of the apostates”, an apparent reference to their murder.
A senior law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive information, confirmed to NBC News the contents of the videos, which were first reported by The New York Times. NBC News has not independently reviewed the videos.
Jabbar, 42, was driving a rental truck from Houston to New Orleans on New Year’s Eve, authorities said, posting videos online along the way. Once he arrived at New Orleans’ famous Bourbon Street, he planted two improvised explosive devices, then got back in his truck and rammed the partygoers around 3:15 a.m., killing 14 people before police killed him in a shooting.
Experts said the details revealed about Jabbar fit the typical pattern of how a veteran can be radicalized to the point of violence.
In the years before Wednesday’s attack, Jabbar went through his third divorce, racked up significant debt and lost his corporate job. Divorce court records from January 2022 reveal he was facing business losses and credit card debts in the tens of thousands of dollars, as well as more than $27,000 in delinquent mortgage payments. By August of that year, his bank accounts held just $2,012, according to documents filed in the case.
While it may not have surprised experts, Jabbar’s outburst baffled his family, friends and colleagues, who described him as kind and unassuming.
“It’s a total surprise, a shock for everyone,” Jabbar’s half-brother, Abdur-Rahim Jabbar IV, 24, said in an interview this week.
It is unclear when Jabbar was first attracted to ISIS. Abdur-Rahim Jabbar shared that their father was Muslim and Shamsud-Din Jabbar’s mother, who was Christian, converted when they married. Jabbar spoke openly about his Muslim faith, but did not speak forcefully about it.
The two rarely spoke about religion, he said, although they discussed the war in Gaza last year. Jabbar said he was upset by the situation, calling it “genocide on both sides.”
After his last divorce, Jabbar seemed to become more pious, although he never discussed ISIS or any radical ideology. His half-brother described him as “trying to find himself.”
In early 2024, Jabbar posted audio messages to SoundCloud, including one titled “The Voice of Satan”, in which he condemned music as “the voice of Satan”, claiming that it led people to forbidden acts like drinking. drugs and violence.
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