Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez, 24, has been identified as the suspect behind two terror attacks at military facilities in Chattanooga, Tenn.
The suspect who shot and killed four Marines Thursday during two terror attacks at military facilities in Chattanooga, Tenn., has been identified as Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez, a law enforcement source confirmed to PPD.
Abdulazeez, 24, who is believed to be from Hixson, Tenn., which is located just across the river from Chattanooga, was born in Kuwait. However, PPD was not able to confirm whether he was a U.S. or Kuwaiti citizen.
“We are treating this as an act of domestic terrorism,” said Bill Killian, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Tennessee. Despite Killian’s statement, FBI Special Agent Ed Reinhold told reporters that it may have been a criminal act.
The law enforcement source said Abdulazeez, who is now dead, was apparently not on the FBI’s radar leading up to Thursday’s attacks. The circumstances of his death were not immediately disclosed.
Abdulazeez first shot up a recruiting center before driving to the Navy Operational Support Center and Marine Corps Reserve Center and killing four Marines before he was shot by police chasing him from the recruiting center to the Support Center, where the killings took place.
A well-placed source in Chattanooga told Fox News that one of the Marines who was killed was a “decorated war hero with two Purple Hearts,” though PPD could not confirm that information. It is confirmed that the youngest victim was a 19 year-old Marine.
Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke, left, following two attacks at military facilities in Chattanooga, Tenn.
The names of the Marines who were reportedly shot were not immediately released pending notification of their families, as is standard procedure.
Agent Reinhold said all the victims were killed at the Navy Operational Support Center and Marine Corps Reserve Center Chattanooga, which is located between Amnicola Highway and a pathway that runs through Tennessee RiverPark. The location is a popular park near the beautiful Tennessee River northeast of downtown Chattanooga.
The White House would only say that President Obama has been briefed by his national security team on the attack, but spokesman Eric Schultz said the president had no comment at this time.
In the first attack, a silver Mustang drove up to the Armed Forces Career Center in a strip mall on Lee’s Highway and opened up with a barrage of gunfire before speeding off, officials said. An unidentified police officer was shot in the ankle, but not seriously injured. Law enforcement officials said that counter-terrorism agents from the FBI’s Knoxville field office responded to the scene.
“This is a very, very terrible situation,” Andy Berke, the city’s mayor told reporters. “I’m very concerned about what’s going on. We need to figure out how to handle it.”
