On Friday, federal officials said they were investigating the shootings Thursday in Chattanooga as a possible terrorist attack but were a long way from drawing conclusions. They said the gunman, 24-year-old Mohammad Youssef Abdulazeez, had not previously drawn the attention of authorities, save for a drunken-driving charge a few months ago.
On Saturday, the Navy said a male petty officer died at 2:17 a.m. of wounds received in Thursday’s shooting — bringing the number killed in the rampage to five. The sailor’s name had not been released.
Abdulazeez’s travels to the Middle East, his acquisition of several firearms and his recent online musings about the meaning of Islam were coming under fresh examination as hundreds of federal agents sought to reconstruct his movements and mind-set.
“At this time, we have no indication he was inspired by or directed by anyone other than himself,” Edward Reinhold, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s office in Knoxville, Tenn., told reporters Friday.
U.S.
officials said that devices including a computer and cellphone believed
to have belonged to Abdulazeez were being examined by FBI technicians
in a laboratory at Quantico, Va.
The FBI
said that Abdulazeez was armed with at least two rifles or shotguns, as
well as a handgun, when he opened fire on a military recruiting center
and a Navy Reserve facility in Chattanooga. Authorities did not give a
more detailed description of the firearms or say how he obtained them.
“Some of the weapons were purchased legally and some of them may not have been,” Reinhold said.
Abdulazeez’s travels to the Middle East, his acquisition of several
firearms and his recent online musings about the meaning of Islam were
coming under fresh examination as hundreds of federal agents sought to
reconstruct his movements and mind-set.“At this time, we have no indication he was inspired by or directed by anyone other than himself,” Edward Reinhold, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s office in Knoxville, Tenn., told reporters Friday.
U.S.
officials said that devices including a computer and cellphone believed
to have belonged to Abdulazeez were being examined by FBI technicians
in a laboratory at Quantico, Va.
The FBI
said that Abdulazeez was armed with at least two rifles or shotguns, as
well as a handgun, when he opened fire on a military recruiting center
and a Navy Reserve facility in Chattanooga. Authorities did not give a
more detailed description of the firearms or say how he obtained them.
“Some of the weapons were purchased legally and some of them may not have been,” Reinhold said.
Federal authorities have arrested more than
10 people over the past six weeks who are suspected of having ties to
the Islamic State. U.S. officials said the crackdown was part of an
effort to suppress a surge in suspected plots aimed at unleashing
violence on U.S. targets during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, which
ended the day of the attacks in Chattanooga.
But
officials have also said that homegrown radicals have gotten better at
hiding their intentions and cloaking their contacts with overseas
groups, despite a massive expansion in U.S. surveillance capabilities
since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Two U.S. law enforcement officials said
Abdulazeez traveled to Jordan on four occasions prior to the shootings.
The last trip he took was from April 2014 to November 2014. One of the
officials said there was no information the trips were connected to
attempts to enter Syria or establish contacts with a terrorist group.
Jordan
has been a way station for foreign fighters attempting to enter Syria,
including a 22-year-old U.S. citizen who similarly went undetected
during trips to Jordan before carrying out a suicide attack in Syria
last year.
But Jordan is also a popular
tourist destination, one of several nations bordering Syria that account
for more than 2 million travelers who arrive in the United States each
year.
Moreover, Abdulazeez had a grandmother and other relatives in the country, according to neighbors and court papers.
And
while his father, Youssuf Abdulazeez, was investigated by the FBI in
1994 and again in 2002 for donating to Palestinian groups suspected of
having ties to terrorism, U.S. officials said the father was removed
from a terrorism watch list a decade ago.
Based
on the limited information available so far, the younger Abdulazeez
appears to have repeatedly brushed up against U.S. screening systems
without triggering an alert, said Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), chairman
of the House Intelligence Committee.
“You
have to do something that would set off some type of alarm,” Nunes said
in an interview. Because of the mounting odds against disrupting plots,
as well as the countermeasures being taken by terrorist groups, Nunes
said that stopping attacks is “becoming tougher and tougher.”
Nunes
said the FBI has warned lawmakers repeatedly in recent months that the
bureau was facing a surge in the number of threats it is tracking — many
based on intelligence gleaned overseas — but has been unable to connect
those tips to individuals or specific targets in the United States.
“The
FBI has warned us that there are a bunch of threats that they know
about but can’t find,” Nunes said. “They have enough specifics to say
something is being planned. We know [the Islamic State] is talking to
someone but we can’t find the person.”
U.S.
counterterrorism officials emphasized Friday that they have no evidence
so far that the attack by Abdulazeez fell into that troubling security
gap.
Four Marines were killed in Thursday’s
attack: Gunnery Sgt. Thomas J. Sullivan of Hampden, Mass.; Staff Sgt.
David A. Wyatt of Burke, N.C.; Sgt. Carson A. Holmquist of Polk, Wis.;
and Lance Cpl. Squire K. Wells of Cobb, Ga.
An
unidentified Navy petty officer and a Chattanooga police officer were
wounded. Abdulazeez was killed after exchanging gunfire with police.
While
the FBI was cautious in making judgments, other lawmakers said there
was clear reason to suspect that Abdulazeez had been inspired, directly
or indirectly, by the Islamic State or a similar group.
“Based
on my experience, I think he was radicalized by these individuals in
Syria,” Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Tex.), chairman of the House Homeland
Security Committee, told reporters. “The threat is real and it comes
from the Internet,” he added. “They don’t have to travel to Iraq and
Syria. . . . They’re already here.”
Abdulazeez
could trace his heritage to several parts of the Middle East — he was
born in Kuwait as a Jordanian citizen, although his parents identified
themselves as Palestinians. He came to the United States with his family
while very young and grew up in Chattanooga, attending a local high
school and earning a degree in electrical engineering from the
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.
In
addition to his visit to Jordan last year, he traveled there on at least
one prior occasion, during a combined trip to Kuwait in 2010, according
to the official Kuwait News Agency.
A high
school friend, Levon Miller, added that Abdulazeez traveled abroad once
every few years. “He’d take off for a month or two mostly during his
college breaks,” Miller said, although he said he didn’t know details
about where he went.
Other signs emerged
Friday that Abdulazeez and his four sisters had grown up in a troubled
household, afflicted by marital strife and debt.
His
father filed for federal bankruptcy protection in 2002. Seven years
later, his mother filed for divorce, charging that her husband had
sexually and physically abused her, and had threatened to take a second
wife. The couple later reconciled.
Three
months ago, Abdulazeez was hired as a shift supervisor by Superior
Essex, a firm that manufactures specialty wiring and cables. Co-workers
said he called in sick last weekend and hadn’t been seen since.
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