By making a bomb with the powerful explosive RDX, Shamsud-Din Jabbar was mimicking the tactics of terrorist groups operating in the Middle East, experts say.
built two bombs using what investigators believe was an explosive so powerful that they could have sprayed shrapnel hundreds of yards and potentially killed or wounded hundreds of people. built with a compound believed to be RDX would have had devastating effects were it not for an amateurish blunder.
“It just doesn’t make sense,” said Tony May, a retired ATF agent who also worked as an Army explosive enforcement officer in Afghanistan. Jabbar, 42, an Army veteran from Texas who was inspired by the Islamic State terrorist group, killed 14 people and injured dozens when down a blocked-off section of Bourbon Street at about 3:15 a.m. on Jan. 1. After carving a three-block path of destruction, he was shot dead in a gunbattle with police.
RDX is not easy to obtain in the United States. A military-grade explosive, it’s also used for specialized purposes by demolition and mining companies and can only be purchased with a federal license. Criminals have been known to get their hands on stolen RDX, but multiple experts told NBC News they suspect Jabbar synthesized it himself — a time-consuming and highly dangerous endeavor.
Had Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber, used RDX, the attack would have been even more catastrophic, experts said.
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