The brother of New Orleans terrorist Shamsud-Din Jabbar has spoken out on the ex-US veteran’s “radicalisation” after his deadly car attack left at least 15 dead.
The 42-year-old driver steered around a police blockade and slammed into revellers before being shot dead by police with score of people also left injured. The FBI said it was a terrorist act and do not believe he acted alone. President Joe Biden called the attack a “despicable” and “heinous act.”
Investigators found guns and what appeared to be an improvised explosive device in the vehicle — which bore the flag of the Islamic State group — along with other explosive devices elsewhere in the city’s famed French Quarter. According to posts on his Facebook page before the horrific attack, Shamsud-Din Jabbar “pledged allegiance to ISIS,” police said. He also revealed he planned on murdering his family in one of the videos.
The terrorist’s brother Abdur Jabbar, 24, from Texas, said the killer had converted to Islam at a young age but believes what his brother “did does not represent Islam. This is more some type of radicalisation, not religion.” He told the New York Times his brother was “a sweetheart really, a nice guy, a friend, really smart, caring,”
Jabbar joined the Army in 2007, serving on active duty in human resources and information technology and deploying to Afghanistan from 2009 to 2010, the service said. He transferred to the Army Reserve in 2015 and left in 2020 with the rank of staff sergeant.
“We do not believe that Jabbar was solely responsible,” FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge Alethea Duncan said at a news conference. Investigators found multiple improvised explosives, including two pipe bombs that were concealed within coolers and wired for remote detonation, according to a Louisiana State Police intelligence bulletin.
The bulletin, relying on preliminary information gathered soon after the attack, also cited surveillance footage that it said showed three men and a woman placing one of the devices, but federal officials did not immediately confirm that detail and it wasn’t clear who they were or what connection they had to the attack, if any.
Jabbar drove a rented pickup truck onto a sidewalk, going around a police car that was positioned to block vehicular traffic, authorities said. A barrier system meant to prevent vehicle attacks was being repaired in preparation for the Super Bowl in February.
Jabbar was killed by police after he exited the truck and opened fire on responding officers, Kirkpatrick said. Three officers returned fire. Two were shot and are in stable condition. Investigators recovered a handgun and AR-style rifle, according to a law enforcement official Zion Parsons, 18, of Gulfport, Mississippi, said he saw the truck “barrelling through, throwing people like in a movie scene, throwing people into the air.”
“Bodies, bodies all up and down the street, everybody screaming and hollering,” said Parsons, whose friend Nikyra Dedeaux was among the people killed. This is not just an act of terrorism. This is evil,” New Orleans Police Superintendent Anne Kirkpatrick said.
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