Suspect Shamsud Din Jabbar cut off from kids before Nola attack & shaved head as erratic behavior & chilling vids probed
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.
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 14 people and injuring over 35 others.
Jabbar, 42, was killed in a shootout with New Orleans police.
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Now, details are slowly emerging of the domestic terrorist who lived a quiet life in a trailer park in Houston, .
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 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."
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.
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.
TRAILER PARK RAID
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.
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"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.";