A man married to one of the ex-wives of deceased New Orleans terror suspect Shamsud-Din Jabbar said he had been "acting erratically" in the months leading up to the New Year's Day attack.
Dwayne Marsh, now married to Jabbar's first ex-wife, told The New York Times that they stopped allowing two daughters that Jabbar shared with Nakedra Charrlle Marsh to spend time with the man police say mowed down dozens of New Year's revelers in the French Quarter early Wednesday morning, killing 14.
Dwayne Marsh told the Times that Jabbar was "being all crazy, cutting his hair" in recent months after converting to Islam.
Jabbar's younger brother, Abdur Jabbar, told the Times that they had been brought up Christian.
"As far as I know he was a Muslim for most of his life," Abdur Jabbar said. "What he did does not represent Islam. This is more some type of radicalization, not religion."
Further, Abdur Jabbar said he spoke with his older brother two weeks ago and that he made no mention of traveling to New Orleans, according to the report.
The younger Jabbar also said that Shamsud-Din Jabbar had a 6-year-old son. It's unclear if that son was with Shamsud-Din Jabbar's second ex-wife or a third, from whom he was separated, according to the Times.
A retired Air Force veteran who attended middle school and high school with Shamsud-Din Jabbar told the Times that in 2015, Jabbar had become "really passionate" about his Muslim faith.
"Before, if he was into it, he wasn't open or verbal about it," Chris Pousson told the Times, adding that by 2015 Jabbar was posting about religion a lot on Facebook. "It was never Muslim extremist stuff, and he was never threatening any violence, but you could see that he had gotten really passionate."
But as far as the attack though, Pousson said, "This is a complete 180 from the quiet, reserved person I knew."
Mark Swanson ✉
Mark Swanson, a Newsmax writer and editor, has nearly three decades of experience covering news, culture and politics.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.