SMILING JIHADI KILLS 4 MARINES
Gun rampage at Tenn. military centers Homegrown fiend tied to ‘hellfire’ rant
The twisted quote in Mohammad Abdulazeez’s high school yearbook said, “My name causes national security alerts. What does yours do?”
A KUWAITI-BORN gunman brought terror to a pair of military facilities in Tennessee, opening fire with multiple weapons and killing four Marines — before his death ended the rampage.
Three people, including a sailor and a police officer, were wounded in the Thursday carnage. It wasn’t clear if the gunman, identified as 24-year-old Mohammad Youssef Abdulazeez, shot himself or if he was gunned down in the Chattanooga mayhem.
U.S. Attorney Bill Killian described the violence as an “act of domestic terrorism.” The FBI said it was still investigating late Thursday whether the shooting had any ties to an organized terror group and it was searching a home nearby for evidence. Abdulazeez was not on the agency’s radar. He had traveled overseas recently, according to a former teacher.
An organization that tracks extremist groups claims Abdulazeez maintained a blog, posting Monday that “life is short and bitter.” He also urged Muslims to “submit to Allah,” according to the SITE Intelligence Group and wrote about the importance of waging “jihad for the sake of Allah.”
In one post, titled “A Prison Called Dunya,” he compared life to a test “designed to separate the inhabitants of Paradise from the inhabitants of Hellfire,” according to the Daily Beast.
Authorities were trying to establish whether the blog was authentic.
The posts exposed a disturbing, sharp contrast from the funny mixed martial arts fighter and engineering major that friends and classmates recalled.
Abdulazeez unleashed a flurry of shots while sitting in a white convertible Ford Mustang, beginning around 10:45 a.m. at a military recruitment center in a strip mall east of Chattanooga. It ended 30 minutes later — about 7 miles away — at the Navy Network Operations Support Center.
FBI agent Edward Reinhold said Abdulazeez had “numerous weapons” but didn’t provide further details.
Armed with what appeared to be a highpowered rifle, Abdulazeez first showered the Armed Forces Career Center with bullets, officials and witnesses said.
Sgt. 1st Class Robert Dodge, 36, was working in his office at the recruitment center, in the strip mall off Lee Highway, when he heard 30 to 50 shots ring out.
“We heard one single shot, which kind of sparked our attention,” Dodge said. “Shortly after that, just a few seconds, the shooter began shooting more rounds. We realized it was an actual shooting, so we then initiated our active-shooter drill: getting down low to the ground, moving to a safe location. And we waited until everything seemed to be clear.”
Witness Gina Mule told CNN she saw a man who’d been in a convertible Mustang, firing a “high-powered rifle” at the recruiting offices at about 10:50 a.m.
“He never got out of the car,” Mule said. “He had a big, huge, high-powered rifle, and he was unloading shots right into the recruiters.” No one was wounded at the recruiting center.
The gunman next drove to the Naval Reserve support center, where he opened fire, killing four Marines and wounding three others, including a sailor who was seriously hurt, according to authorities. A police officer, identified as Dennis Pedigo, was shot in the ankle, and was in stable condition.
A number of former high school classmates shared an image of what appeared to be clean-cut Abdulazeez’s senior picture and quote from a yearbook on social media after the horrific attack.
“My name causes national security alerts,” the quote reads. “What does yours do?”
President Obama promised a full investigation into the shootings and offered his support and sympathy for the families of the Marines killed in the heinous attack.
“We know that what appears to be a lone gunman carried out these attacks,” Obama said at the White House shortly after returning from a trip to Oklahoma City. “My main message right now is obviously my deepest sympathies to the American people, to the four Marines that have been killed.”
The Naval Reserve center, bordering a waterfront park, is in an industrial area that includes a Coca-Cola bottling plant.
A “no guns allowed” sign was posted outside the facility.
Marilyn Hutcheson, who works at Binswanger Glass across the street, said she heard a barrage of gunfire around 11 a.m.
“I couldn’t even begin to tell you how many,” she said of the shots. “It was rapid-fire, like pow-pow-pow-pow-pow, so quickly. The next thing I knew, there were police cars coming from every direction.”
She ran inside, and she and other employees and a customer waited it out with the doors locked. The gunfire continued with occasional bursts for what she estimated was 20 minutes.
After the incident, the shooter’s Mustang could be seen inside the center’s gates, apparently mangled from striking a fence.
The FBI confirmed that guns are usually prohibited at federal facilities.
Reinhold, the special agent in charge for the FBI in Knoxville, declined to discuss de-
tails of the investigation, which he said was still in its initial stages. He would not say whether Abdulazeez killed himself or was shot by law enforcement.
“We will treat this as a terrorism investigation until it can be determined that it was not,” he said. “We have not determined if it was an act of terrorism or a criminal act.” The names of the dead were not released. “Following the shooting incident which occurred this morning on Amnicola Highway, Erlanger’s Trauma Center received three shooting victims, a Chattanooga police officer and two members of the military,” the hospital said in a statement.
Officials offered sympathy and sought to calm fears after the bloodshed. Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam arrived in Chattanooga Thursday evening.
“Lives have been lost from some faithful people who have been serving our country, and I think I join all Tennesseans in being both sickened and saddened by this,” Haslam said.
Abdulazeez was reportedly born in Kuwait, but lived in Hixson, Tenn., just 7 miles from where the carnage unfolded, and attended a local high school.
Law enforcement swarmed a house believed to belong to Abdulazeez’s family Thursday.
Officers with weapons drawn entered the house and two women were led away in handcuffs, according to reports. It was not clear who the women were.
A dozen police and military vehicles, including a bomb-squad truck, filled the streets of the upper middle class Colonial Shores neighborhood of Hixson, where police turned away people trying to reach their homes.
Chattanooga residents struggled to understand the violence and several former classmates of Abdulazeez recalled him as a typical teen who attended Red Bank High School.
“He was an athlete that seemed to get along with everyone,” said Cari Lockhart, 22, who went to school with Abdulazeez. “Before this heartbreaking incident, I don’t think anyone could have anything negative to say about him.”
Ryan Smith, who wrestled with Abdulazeez in high school, told the Free Press he was a “swell guy.”
“He was an unbelievable nice person,” Smith said. “He was honestly one of the funniest guys I’ve ever met.”
Abdulazeez became a mixed martial artist after high school, Smith said.
Abdulazeez’s martial arts coach, Almir Dizdarevic, told CNN his former student’s father told him two years ago that his son had left the country to “move back home.”
Since then, Dizdarevic said when he ran into Abdulazeez at a Tennessee mosque, his former student told him he was teaching wrestling and doing well.
According to court records, Abdulazeez was booked for driving under the influence in April. A recent mug shot shows a smiling, bearded Abdulazeez looking nothing like the tuxedo-wearing senior from his high school yearbook.
Abdulazeez recently took time off from his job as an electrical engineer, according to a co-worker. He graduated from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in 2012 with a degree in engineering. His father is listed on city of Chattanooga’s website as a soil engineering specialist.
The U.S. National Counterterrorism Center reported that there was no apparent connection to ISIS militants, but noted that the terrorist group has been encouraging extremists to carry out attacks on U.S. soil.
Several similar homegrown acts or plots have unfolded or been foiled in recent months, authorities said.
A so-called “lone wolf” attack, perpetrated by people living in the U.S. and radicalized and inspired by the terrorist group online occurred in May when two gunmen were killed outside of a Prophet Muhammad cartoon drawing contest in Garland, Tex.
ISIS claimed responsibility for the attempted attack in Texas on social media.
Although authorities believe that Abdulazeez was acting as a lone gunman, other military sites in Tennessee were placed on high alert following the shooting, officials said. A nearby mall and several schools were also placed on lockdown.
Fellow Muslims in Chattanooga condemned the attack.
In New York, NYPD Deputy Commissioner Intelligence and Counterterrorism John Miller said the city was not taking any chances and increasing security at recruiting centers and other locations.
“While we have no specific information about any plot against the city, until we learn more about the attack we have placed additional officers in key locations. We have been in regular contact with Tennessee authorities, the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force and the intelligence community,” Miller said in a statement.