THE suspected domestic terrorist behind the New Orleans bloodbath grew increasingly erratic in the months before the deadly New Year’s Day attack.
Federal investigators are still piecing together a motive behind Shamsud-Din Jabbar‘s harrowing act and what drove the US Army veteran to ram a pickup truck through a crowd of revelers alongside the renowned Bourbon Street.
President Joe Biden said Jabbar was “inspired by” the Islamic State terrorist organization after the FBI confirmed the suspect had an ISIS flag attached to the back of the rented Ford pickup truck.
The sickening attack occurred at 3:15 am on January 1, hours after hundreds of people along the packed French Quarter district of New Orleans celebrated the New Year.
Investigators said Jabbar was able to drive around a police security point by jumping a sidewalk on Bourbon Street before ramming into a sea of revelers, killing at least 15 people and injuring 30 others.
Jabbar, 42, was killed in a shootout with New Orleans police.
Now, details are slowly emerging of the domestic terrorist who lived a quiet life in a trailer park in Houston, Texas.
What he did does not represent Islam. This is more some type of radicalization, not religion.
Abdur Jabbar
Jabbar, who was born in Beaumont, Texas, was married twice but struggled to adjust to civilian life after a decade of active military service.
His younger brother, 24-year-old Abdur Jabbar, told The New York Times he last spoke to his older sibling two weeks before the massacre in New Orleans.
Abdur said he and his brother were raised Christians, but Jabbar had long converted to Islam.
“As far as I know, he was a Muslim for most of his life,” Abdur told the outer.
“What he did does not represent Islam. This is more some type of radicalization, not religion.”
Dwayne Marsh, who is married to Jabbar’s first wife, Nakedra Charrlle Marsh, told The New York Times the suspect had been acting erratically in recent months, “being all crazy, cutting his hair” after converting to Islam.
Marsh said his wife stopped allowing her two daughters, whom she shared with Jabbar, from spending time with him.
Jabbar, who got out of active-duty military service in 2015, joined the army after not knowing what he wanted to do in his life, his younger brother said.
“It was a new outlet to get some sort of discipline,” Abdar added.
Chris Pousson, a retired Air Force veteran, attended middle school and high school with Jabbar, who he remembered as “quiet, reserved, and really really smart.”
“He wasn’t a troublemaker at all. He made good grades and was always well-dressed in button-ups and polo shirts,” Pousson, 42, told the outlet.
Pousson said he and Jabbar eventually reconnected on Facebook, where he noticed that his former classmate had become “deeply involved in his Muslim faith.”
“Before, if he was into it, he wasn’t open or verbal about it,” he added.
Pousson said he noticed Jabbar posting regularly about religion on his Facebook account but never about violence.
“It was never Muslim extremist stuff,” he recalled.
“He was never threatening any violence, but you could see that he had gotten really passionate.
“This is a complete 180 from the quiet, reserved person I knew.”
The FBI announced on Thursday that they believe Jabbar acted alone in the attack.
An FBI deputy said the agency reviewed surveillance footage of Jabbar placing improvised explosive devices in two separate parts of the French Quarter.
The two IEDs were found in coolers and were rendered safe, according to the FBI.
Jabbar rented the Ford pickup truck in Houston on December 30 and traveled from Texas to New Orleans on December 31.
Investigators said the suspect posted five videos on his Facebook account hours before he drove the pickup truck through dozens of New Year’s celebrators.
In the videos, Jabbar pledged his support for ISIS and recorded the videos between 1:29 am and 3:02 am on the morning of December 31, investigators said.
Jabbar also said in the videos that he joined ISIS before the summer and left a will, officials revealed during a Thursday press conference.
In other videos, Jabbar made references to his divorce and how he had at first planned to gather his family for a “celebration” with the intent to kill them, CNN reported.
But, in the videos, Jabbar said he changed his plans and joined ISIS, referencing “several dreams” he had about why he should be joining the terrorist organization.
The videos were believed to have been recorded as he drove from Houston to New Orleans on the evening of December 31, federal investigators said.
On Wednesday afternoon, federal agents raided Jabbar’s trailer park, where he moved into about a year ago.
Drone footage showed an unknown man with his hands up outside Jabbar’s trailer park home as several SWAT officers in an army vehicle pointed their guns at him.
The FBI completed their search of Jabbar’s property on Thursday morning, with no arrests being made.
Marilyn Bradford, 70, who lived upstairs from Jabbar in a Houston apartment complex in 2021 before he moved, remembered her neighbor as an “outcast person” but someone she considered a “buddy.”
“He was no terrorist to me,” she told The New York Times.
When Jabbar moved out of the Houston apartment sometime in 2023, he gave Bradford a dryer, a streamer, and other household items.
“I said, ‘Oh, you are giving me something to remember you by?’ He laughed, like he always did,” Bradford recalled.
“He was an outcast person. I was the only one he really talked to. I used to refer to him as my buddy.”
