A New York Times reporter said there were no “red flags” after discovering that 10 years ago, he interviewed the US Army vet who killed 15 people in a New Orleans New Year’s Eve mob.
The suspect, 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Jabbar, rammed a rented Ford pickup carrying an ISIS flag into a partying crowd early Wednesday.
The suspect killed at least 15 people and injured dozens more in what the FBI is investigating as a terrorist attack.
Jabbar — who had been living in a dilapidated trailer park where sheep, goats and chickens were kept in the backyard, according to The Post’s exclusive report — was killed in a shootout with police officers.
A leaked 10-year-old article for a college newspaper revealed that Sean Keenan, an Atlanta-based journalist and freelance contributor for the New York Times, had interviewed Jabbar while both were attending Georgia State University in 2015.
“My head was spinning and what little I remember from that interview was a very cool, calm, collected guy,” Keenan told CNN’s Paula Newton on Thursday. “Nothing in his character raised red flags.”
Keenan recalled, however, that Jabbar had a “pretty reserved demeanor” and was “a little distant” — “in the way you sometimes see from veterans who have had tough deployments.”
Jabbar attended Georgia State from 2015 to 2017, graduating with a bachelor’s degree in computer information systems, according to university officials.
He had served in the Army for eight years, was deployed to Afghanistan and then served in the Army Reserve until 2020, military officials said Wednesday.
The suspect spoke to Keenan in 2015 about his efforts to adjust to civilian life as a student after leaving the military.
The process for veterans to get their tuition and benefits through the GI Bill was complicated and the Department of Veterans Affairs didn’t make it easy, Jabbar told Keenan.
It was difficult to talk to others without succumbing to his military jargon, the suspect added.
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“You don’t know how to talk without using these terms and you’re not sure what terms are used outside of the military,” Jabbar said.
Chris Pousson, a retired Air Force veteran who was friends with Jabbar in middle and high school, said the suspect “had good grades,” dressed well and didn’t cause trouble.
When he reconnected with the suspect on Facebook years later, after Jabbar left the military, Pousson noticed a dramatic change in Jabbar’s behavior.
“He was never threatening any violence, but you could see that he was very passionate about his faith,” Pousson told the New York Times.
Investigators are looking into whether Jabbar acted alone in the attack after several pipe bombs were found in the truck and throughout the French Quarter, officials said.
Surveillance video appeared to show other people with the suspect as he set up the equipment, they added.
“We do not believe Jabbar was solely responsible,” FBI Special Agent Alethea Duncan told reporters Wednesday afternoon.
However, law enforcement sources later said the people in the video had been cleared of wrongdoing.
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