The attack that killed 14 and injured many others on Bourbon Street in New Orleans early New Year's Day has racked the nation. Terrorist Shamsud-Din Jabbar was behind the massacre, but he left a trail of his extremist views online before the incident.
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The 42-year-old Texas-based Army veteran drove a truck into innocent civilians celebrating New Year's around 3:15 AM. He then hopped out of his vehicle which held an Islamic flag at the back and opened fire. The police managed to shoot him down and since then the investigations into Jabbar's motives have been ongoing.
New Orleans Attacker Connected To Extremist ISIS Group
Recent findings show that Jabbar had a chilling digital footprint through both Facebook and SoundCloud. According to the FBI, he aligned himself with ISIS, the Islamic terrorist group. The terrorist claimed that he managed to join ISIS before the summer. Jabbar admitted all of this through Facebook posts, alongside a desire to kill.
The criminal also posted just 15 minutes before the catastrophe. In one video, Jabbar detailed how he initially planned to murder his family and friends. He didn't end up going through with it. According to Chris Raia, an FBI counterterrorism official, Jabbar was concerned that the headlines wouldn't talk about the "war between the believers and the disbelievers."
Meanwhile, Jabbar's SoundCloud account has been discovered. It contains three recordings reaching a total of 20 minutes. Here, the New Orleans terrorist expressed his extremist religious views even further. He believed that pleasures like music and intoxicants "were evils deserving of destruction," according to The Guardian.
Jabbar had been sharing his extremist views online since around February 2024. He would reiterate points like how music entices us to "vulgarity violence, betrayal," amongst many other things. Jabbar also claimed that music was "Satan's voice."
The outlet noted how the voice on those recordings matched the ones from Jabbar when he promoted a real estate business that he ran. Unfortunately, no one took these red flags seriously enough, and it led to Jabbar acting on his terrible views.
The authorities have seriously considered this massacre to be a terrorist attack. "This was an act of terrorism," Raia said. "It was premeditated and an evil act."
So far, these have been the only traces of Jabbar's extremist religious views online. As the investigation continues, more news will certainly unfold.
