Shamsud-Din Jabbar, the attacker responsible for a tragic incident in New Orleans, had recorded disturbing videos before his deadly act. In these videos, Jabbar expressed plans to harm his family and friends, stating he had considered carrying out the attack before but was concerned that the media would not focus on the “war between the believers and the disbelievers,” according to FBI deputy assistant director Christopher Raia. Jabbar also mentioned in the videos that he had joined ISIS before the previous summer and shared his last will, Raia added.

Jabbar, 42, drove his pickup truck into a crowd on Bourbon Street, killing 15 people and injuring others. Just before the attack, he posted five videos on Facebook, which were uploaded between 1:29 a.m. and 3:02 a.m. on the day of the incident. The videos revealed that he initially planned to gather his family under the guise of a celebration with the intention of killing them, CNN reported.

A Texas-born Army veteran who served in Afghanistan, Jabbar had been struggling with isolation in recent years. His younger brother, Abdur-Rahim Jabbar, expressed shock, stating that he never imagined his brother could commit such a crime. Despite being in contact recently, he did not notice any signs of radicalization.

The FBI recovered a black ISIS flag from Jabbar’s rented vehicle, and they discovered two improvised explosive devices that Jabbar had planted before the attack. At around 3:15 a.m., Jabbar crashed his truck into a crowd and engaged in gunfire with police before he was killed in the exchange. Eyewitnesses described Jabbar wearing full body armor and carrying an assault rifle.

Jabbar had served in the U.S. Army from 2007 to 2015 and in the Army Reserve until 2020. He had deployed to Afghanistan in 2009. Before the attack, Jabbar traveled to Egypt in 2023 and later visited Toronto, but the details of his activities during these trips remain unclear.