The brother of the terrorist who launched the deadly car attack on Bourbon Street in New Orleans says that “radicalization” is to blame for his kin’s rampage, writes the New York Post.
Abdur Jabbar, 24, of Beaumont, Texas, told the New York Times that his brother, Shamsud-Din Jabbar—who killed at least 15 people in the New Year’s Day attack—converted to Islam at an early age.
The younger Jabbar told the newspaper that what his brother “did does not represent Islam. This is more some type of radicalization, not religion.”
Abdur described his brother, who was killed by police after mowing down innocent revelers, as “a sweetheart really, a nice guy, a friend, really smart, caring,” according to the Times.
In videos posted to his Facebook page prior to the attack, Shamsud-Din Jabbar “pledged allegiance to ISIS,” the outlet reported, citing law enforcement officials.
Shamsud-Din Jabbar was a US-born military veteran who went from success to a squalid Houston trailer park where sheep roamed his yard.
He also confessed he planned on murdering his family in one of the videos.
The twice-divorced terrorist had two daughters, ages 15 and 20, with ex-wife Nakedra Charrlle, according to the New York Times.
Shamsud-Din was driving while recording those videos, and authorities believe that they could have been recorded while he was on the road to Louisiana from his Houston home, according to those sources.
The feds do not believe the terrorist acted alone while carrying out the attack in the French Quarter.
Authorities say Shamsud-Din Jabbar, 42, from Houston, had an ISIS flag strapped to the rented Ford F-150 Lightning EV truck he used to carry out an act of premeditated terror on New Year’s Day.
In a YouTube video he posted in 2020 for his real estate business, a clean-cut Jabbar described himself as a reliable, trustworthy native Texan who spent 10 years in the military, which taught him “the meaning of great service.”
But when he carried out the terror attack—one of the deadliest since 9/11—Jabbar lived in a squalid trailer park on the outskirts of Houston that is home to mostly Muslim immigrants.
Geese, chickens, and sheep roamed freely in Jabbar’s yard when The Post visited hours after the attack.
