NEW ORLEANS (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.”–Reuters
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