In a change, FBI says July 16 Chattanooga attack ‘motivated by’ terrorist propaganda

FILE - This is a Wednesday, March 25, 2015 file photo of FBI director James Comey as he gestures during a news conference at FBI headquarters in Washington. FBI director Comey has caused huge offense to a U.S. ally: using language to suggest that Poles were accomplices in the Holocaust. On Monday, April 20, 2015 Poles were waiting to see if FBI director James Comey apologizes _ something Polish Foreign Minister Grzegorz Schetyna said he expected so the matter can be settled. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci, File) FILE - This is a Wednesday, March 25, 2015 file photo of FBI director James Comey as he gestures during a news conference at FBI headquarters in Washington. FBI director Comey has caused huge offense to a U.S. ally: using language to suggest that Poles were accomplices in the Holocaust. On Monday, April 20, 2015 Poles were waiting to see if FBI director James Comey apologizes _ something Polish Foreign Minister Grzegorz Schetyna said he expected so the matter can be settled. (AP Photo/ Evan Vucci, File)

By Shelly Bradbury December 16, 2015 2 min read

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Terror in Chattanooga

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July 16 shooting: Five months later

Five quarters are seen atop the memorial to the five service members killed in a terror incident on July 16, 2015, is photographed on Monday, Dec. 14, 2015, in Chattanooga, Tenn. The memorial is located in front of the Armed Forces Career Center on Lee Highway next to Highway 153, the scene of the first shots fired in the July attack.

A wooden cross has been erected at the memorial to the five service members killed in a terror incident on July 16, 2015, seen Monday, Dec. 14, 2015, in Chattanooga, Tenn. The memorial is located in front of the Armed Forces Career Center on Lee Highway next to Highway 153, the scene of the first shots fired in the July attack.

The memorial to the five service members killed in a terror incident on July 16, 2015, is photographed on Monday, Dec. 14, 2015, in Chattanooga, Tenn. The memorial is located in front of the Armed Forces Career Center on Lee Highway next to Highway 153, the scene of the first shots fired in the July attack.

Marine SSgt David A. Wyatt is buried beside U.S. Navy LS2 Randall Scott Smith at the Chattanooga National Cemetery.

The head stone of U.S. Navy LS2 Randall Scott Smith is situated beside Marine SSgt David A. Wyatt, right, at the Chattanooga National Cemetery.

A creek stone, a quarter-dollar and a penny rests atop the head stones of U.S. Navy LS2 Randall Scott Smith, and Marine SSgt David A. Wyatt at the Chattanooga National Cemetery.

The shooter who attacked two military sites in Chattanooga on July 16 was inspired by a foreign terrorist organization, the director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation said today in a press conference in New York City.

“We’ve investigated Chattanooga from the beginning and we’ve concluded the Chattanooga killer was inspired by a foreign terrorist organization’s propaganda,” Director James Comey told reporters in New York.

Comey made the remarks to reporters in New York after the Associated Press and other media outlets pointed out inconsistencies between the FBI’s handling of the Chattanooga shooting and other, seemingly similar cases.

On July 16, 24-year-old Mohammad Youssef Abdulazeez attacked two military sites in Chattanooga and killed five U.S. service members. The FBI initially hesitated to call the attack “terrorism.”

While it took two days for the FBI to announce it was investigating the Dec. 2 San Bernardino attacks as an act of terror, it took five months after the killing of five military personnel in Chattanooga for authorities to use the same wording about the attack by a Kuwaiti-born gunman.