A US Army veteran from Texas who drove to Louisiana and deliberately crashed into New Year’s revelers in New Orleans recorded videos during the trip to his family, in which he talked about 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.”
Then he added, “I don’t want you to think that I voluntarily forgave you.”
He told his family that he had first wanted to organize a “celebration” for them and have everyone “witness the slaughter of the apostates,” an apparent reference to killing them.
A senior law enforcement official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss confidential information, confirmed to NBC News the content of the videos, which were first reported by The New York Times. NBC News has not independently reviewed the videos.
Jabbar, 42, drove a rented truck from Houston to New Orleans on New Year’s Eve, authorities said, posting videos online along the way. Once he reached New Orleans’ famous Bourbon Street, he planted two improvised explosive devices and then returned to his truck and ran over revelers around 3:15 a.m., killing 14 people before police killed him. in a shootout.
Experts said the details that have emerged about Jabbar align with the typical pattern of how a veteran can become radicalized toward violence.
In the years leading up to Wednesday’s attack, Jabbar experienced his third divorce, racked up significant debt and lost his corporate job. Divorce court records from January 2022 reveal that he was facing tens of thousands of dollars in business losses and credit card debt, along with more than $27,000 in missed mortgage payments. In August of that year, his bank accounts had only $2,012, according to documents filed in the case.
While it may not have surprised experts, Jabbar’s attack has baffled his family, friends and colleagues, who described him as kind and modest.
“It’s a complete surprise, a shock to everyone,” Jabbar’s half-brother, Abdur-Rahim Jabbar IV, 24, said in an interview this week.
It is unclear when Jabbar first became attracted to ISIS. Abdur-Rahim Jabbar shared that his father was Muslim and that Shamsud-Din Jabbar’s mother, who was Christian, converted when they married. Jabbar was open about his Muslim faith, but did not speak about it forcefully.
The two rarely talked about religion, he said, although they did talk about the war in Gaza last year. Jabbar expressed his displeasure at the situation, calling it “genocide on both sides.”
After his most recent divorce, Jabbar appeared to become more devout, 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 on SoundCloud, including one titled “Satan’s Voice,” in which he condemned music as “Satan’s Voice,” claiming that it led people to forbidden acts such as consuming drugs and violence.
