CNN
Shamsud Din JabbarThe terrorist who killed 14 people in New Orleans in the early hours of New Year's Day told his college newspaper a decade ago that he was having trouble adjusting to life as a civilian after his military service.
The U.S. Army veteran attended Georgia State University from 2015 to 2017 and was interviewed for The Signal during his first year on campus as part of a story about students fighting through hurdles to use the GI Bill.
Jabbar told the reporter Sean Keenan He found it difficult to use the GI Bill to pay his tuition and had a hard time adjusting to life as a student. He told Keenan he didn't know how to talk to normal people without using military slang.
Keenan, who now writes for The New York Times, recalled his interaction with Jabbar in 2015 … and told CNN that Jabbar came across as a “very cool, calm and collected guy.”
While Keenan says nothing about Jabbar's character raising any red flags at this point, he recalls that Jabbar was reserved and distant, “as you sometimes see with veterans who have been through difficult deployments.”
Jabbar served in the army for 8 years and was deployed to Afghanistan… and his younger brother says he enlisted because he didn't know what to do with his life and needed discipline.
Keenan says his head has been spinning ever since he realized he was interviewing Jabbar back then… and that he only understood the context after a fellow journalist found his old story.