NEW ORLEANS/BEAUMONT, Texas. A U.S. Army veteran who killed 14 people by ramming a truck into a crowd of New Year’s Day revelers in New Orleans had pledged allegiance to Islamic State and appeared to have made recordings in which he condemned music, drugs and alcohol.
Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a 42-year-old Texas native who once served in Afghanistan, acted alone in the attack, the FBI said on Thursday, reversing an earlier assessment that he may have had accomplices.
He was killed in a shootout with police after the rampage, which also injured dozens of people and has been labeled by the FBI as an act of terrorism.
“It was premeditated and an evil act,” FBI Deputy Assistant Director Christopher Raia told a press conference on Thursday, reaffirming the bureau’s conclusion that Jabbar was inspired by Islamic State, the militant group with fighters in Iraq and Syria.
Raia said investigators were looking into Jabbar’s “path to radicalization,” still uncertain how he transformed from military veteran, real-estate agent and one-time employee of the major tax and consulting firm Deloitte into someone who was “100 percent inspired by ISIS,” or Islamic state.
An Islamic State flag flew from a staff attached to the back of the rented truck used in the attack.
Though greatly weakened by a sustained military campaign by a U.S.-led coalition, Islamic State has continued to recruit sympathizers online, experts say.
Jabbar’s half-brother was also searching for answers, saying Shamsud-Din Jabbar had been struggling to get past a recent divorce but that he showed no signs of anger just weeks prior to the attack.
“He was smart, funny, charismatic, loving, compassionate, humble and literally wouldn’t hurt a fly,” Abdur Rahim Jabbar told Reuters in an interview at his home in Beaumont, Texas. “That’s why it’s so devastating. This degree of maliciousness is not like him. We are trying to understand what changed, too.”
He said their father broke down upon hearing the news.
“(Our dad) started crying. He was saying ‘nope, nope, not my oldest boy,'” Abdur Jabbar said.
HEIGHTENED SECURITY PROMISED
The massacre on New Orleans’ famed Bourbon Street in the French Quarter during a holiday celebration and an explosion outside the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas have made for an unnerving start to the new year in the U.S.
The FBI said it had so far found no definitive link between the New Orleans attack and the Cybertruck e later on the same day, which killed the driver and left seven people with minor injuries.
Law enforcement officials across the country are promising heightened security for upcoming public events.
The Sugar Bowl college football game that had been scheduled for Wednesday in New Orleans in a New Year’s Day tradition was rescheduled for Thursday under increased security and with a moment of silence to honor the victims. Once the game got played, Notre Dame defeated Georgia, 23-10.
Bourbon Street reopened to the public earlier in the day. The city is also readying for weeks of Mardi Gras celebrations that begin on Jan. 6 and will host the National Football League’s Super Bowl next month, with city officials promising heightened security for the crowded events.
Shamsud-Din Jabbar had recently renewed his Muslim faith after abandoning it in his 20s and 30s, his half-brother said.
He appeared to have made a series of religious audio recordings 11 months ago that contained radical views on the evils of music as well as more mainstream Islamic views such as condemning drugs and alcohol.
Abdur Jabbar confirmed to Reuters that the recordings posted on the SoundCloud platform were of his half-brother.
“Music is the voice of Satan. … Satan’s voice is also the misleading of people from Allah’s way,” Shamsud-Din Jabbar says in one of the recordings.
“One of the signs of the end of times will be that some groups of Muslims will think that playing music is no longer sinful,” he said, adding that “Allah will punish them with an earthquake and transformation.”
He also decries the use of “intoxicants like marijuana, alcohol, sedatives, opioids, stimulants.”
The FBI and SoundCloud did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the recordings.
FAMILY, FINANCIAL PROBLEMS
Jabbar had faced family and financial struggles in recent years, according to public records and interviews.
His father suffered a stroke in 2023 and he was helping arrange for his care, Abdur Jabbar said. That came on the heels of his divorce, in September 2022, from his second wife, with whom he fathered one child, court records show.
According to the FBI, Jabbar drove from Houston to New Orleans on Dec. 31. On the morning of the attack, between 1:29 a.m. and 3:02 a.m., he posted five videos on Facebook in which he said he supported Islamic State, the FBI said.
In the first video, Jabbar said he previously planned to harm his family and friends, but was concerned that the media coverage would not focus on the “war between the believers and the disbelievers,” Raia said.
Jabbar also said in the videos that he had joined Islamic State before last summer and provided his last will and testament, Raia said.
Surveillance video showed Jabbar placing two improvised explosive devices in coolers a few hours before the attack at intersections around Bourbon Street. They were both rendered safe at the scene.
Reuters