By the time Shamsuddin-Jabbar began filming on his cellphone in the dark, his electric car had already left his trailer home outside Houston, past the gleaming refineries to the east, heading toward New Orleans. I want to write these words for my family,” Mr. Jabbar said. “I want you to know that I joined ISIS earlier this year.”

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Then Kareem added a chilling statement. “I don’t want you to think that I forgave you of my own free will,” he said, according to excerpts of a video reviewed by The New York Times. “I want to give them a ‘celebration’ and then have everyone ‘witness the slaughter of traitors. ’

Those were Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s last words before he plowed a rented car into a crowd on Bourbon Street in New Orleans on New Year’s Day, killing 14 people and dying in a shootout with police. His car bore the flag of the Islamic State terrorist group, known as the Islamic State.

The crime left his loved ones, who knew him as a veteran “solutions expert” in international accounting with a focus on public service and a $120,000 annual salary, confused and uncovered his secret. The next day, investigators are still trying to figure out exactly how Jabbar got into such a deadly situation without being discovered. But new details from the tapes, interviews and public records suggest that Jabbar had become increasingly disillusioned with American society and was beginning to turn to a more conservative and dark form of Islam.

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Most of the analysis has focused on the past year, when Kareem realized his isolation by moving into a Muslim neighborhood in north Houston, where a cluster of mobile homes with chickens, goats and cats roamed freely in the backyard. Many neighbors said he was still a protester, even though he found himself surrounded by worshippers and lived in a neighborhood just outside one church and was shorter than the other.

He was alone at home, did not receive visitors and minimized contact with neighbors. One neighbor recalled: Mr. Jabbar once had a long beard, which he later cut short. Most residents said they had never seen him pray at the nearest mosque, while speakers at mosques farther away said they did not remember him praying. "I have lived in this community since 2008 and we have never seen him pray here in our life," local resident Taha Mohamed said as he attended the night prayer. Jabbar, his relatives said, did not share his growing religious beliefs with those around him, although he occasionally released records that were protected from interpretations of Islam.

There are signs of a double life in Jabbar's home in Bay. The man, who worked in real estate and IT for many years, has set up several greenhouses on his porch. Inside, a laptop sits on two tables and a shelf holds the Quran and religious books.

Investigators wrote in the documents that they found several dangerous substances left behind by Jabbar, including acetone, bottles of sulfuric acid, which could be used in explosives, and bags labeled with potassium nitrate. In our bedroom in Beaumont, Texas, where Kareem grew up, family members gathered this week to look at photos from his life. The photos showed him in his Little League uniform, his flowing red graduation robe and cap, and smiling.

Abdur Rahim Jabbar IV, 24, said: “Jabbar is growing up normally. He likes school and gets good grades.” Jabbar’s father was raised Christian but later converted to Islam, changed his last name from Young to Jabbar and gave his children Arabic names. But many members of the family were African American and continued to attend the local Baptist church. A relative of Jabbar's asked not to be named for fear of being dragged into the case. worldly life. "I don't think I've heard a word from God," he said. Mr. Jabbar's mother, who remains a Christian, moved to the Houston area with Shamsuddin and the couple's other children after the divorce.

Mr. Jabbar gained experience in higher education at the University of Houston. His half-brother said his love of food and drink at the university hindered his education and eventually cost him his scholarship. He joined the U.S. Army in 2007, eventually working in human resources and information technology, rising to the rank of staff officer, deploying to Afghanistan and receiving the Global War on Crime award. In 2013, the Army published a Facebook post announcing the news. There, Mr. Jabbar’s mother responded with a statement expressing her gratitude. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar told his family he was grateful for his time in the military. “It made him feel good,” his half-brother said. — It gave him some discipline. That set him straight. After eight years of studying, Mr. Jabbar enrolled at Georgia State University. Although at least one friend has expressed interest in the Muslim faith, those who know him still can’t see the See More.....