LEE COUNTY, Fla. — How does a man, who was a U.S. Army veteran, go from protecting our country to being called a terrorist with allegiance to ISIS? It's a question Fox 4 Senior Reporter Kaitlin Knapp asked a former FBI agent.
Shamsud-Din Jabbar is the man FBI officials say hit and killed at least 14 people and injured dozens in New Orleans on Wednesday.
The FBI quickly said this was a terrorist attack and later revealed information about Jabbar. They said he was born in Texas, became a soldier and later a real estate agent.
At some point, that changed.
WATCH BELOW TO SEE WHAT A FORMER FBI AGENT HAD TO SAY ABOUT THE SUSPECT:
"That split in the road for him will be what the FBI profilers are looking for — what was going on his life where he made that switch," said Mary Ellen O'Toole, a former FBI agent and profiler. "At some point in his life he was able to emotionally change."
She says the change could have taken years.
Jabbar was divorced, had financial problems and for reasons we don't know yet, it turned into an allegiance to ISIS.
"There are a small group of people that do not manage it well, that don't accept responsibility, that will blame others for all the other problems in their life," O'Toole said. "I think there was a transformation process with this individual."
O'Toole says the blame can turn into hatred of others.
"When you see somebody that evolves into hatred of other people, because their own life is falling apart, that turns people into objects...when people become objects, they’re easier to kill," O'Toole said.
But at what point did Jabbar decide to take that turn to ISIS?
"We're going to hear what it is about ISIS that he found so appealing," O'Toole said. "Sometimes what you see when people aspire to a group or another individual, they cherry pick what they aspire to."
While investigators look, O'Toole points out any warning signs. She says oftentimes with events like this, there are certain behaviors or what is called "leakage."
She explains leakage as hints or statements made that could be a sign something could be brewing inside a person.
"Unless law enforcement is made aware of these pre-incidents behavior, there’s no way that we have a crystal ball," O'Toole said, explaining that someone needs to say something if they see something.
While we don't know what led Jabbar to this heinous attack, O'Toole says investigators will look at what point he began to snowball.
"It was a major terrorist attack that required a lot of planning," she said.
