FBI investigators work the scene of the July, 16 shooting at the Naval Operational Support Center on Amnicola Highway on Saturday, July 18, 2015, in Chattanooga, Tenn. U.S. Navy Petty Officer Randall Smith died Saturday from wounds sustained when gunman Mohammad Youssef Abdulazeez shot and killed four U.S. Marines and wounded two others and a Chattanooga police officer at the Naval Operational Support Center shortly after firing into the Armed Forces Career Center on Lee Highway.Some people who knew Mohammad Youssef Abdulazeez before he carried out the July 16 terrorist attack in Chattanooga realized he was becoming radicalized but failed to alert authorities, the FBI agent in charge of the investigation said Thursday.
Abdulazeez was radicalized online more than a year before he opened fire on two military sites and killed five U.S. service members, Special Agent in Charge Ed Reinhold said. The 24-year-old Hixson man had watched videos and teachings from a member of al-Qaida online, and had discussed carrying out an attack.
“He had discussed committing jihad; he had not taken any affirmative action toward it,” Reinhold said.
Reinhold declined to say where those discussions took place, or with whom. He said the FBI was not aware of the discussions before the attack, and added that Abdulazeez did not espouse his beliefs or intentions online.
A U.S. official says the gunman in the shootings in Tennessee has been identified as 24-year-old Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez, according to the Associated Press.
He was believed to have been born in Kuwait, and it was unclear whether he was a U.S. or Kuwaiti citizen. The official was speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing, sensitive investigation. It was not immediately clear whether the gunman’s first name was spelled Muhammad or Mohammad.
He is from Hixson, Tennessee, which is just a few miles across the river from Chattanooga.Abdulazeez was radicalized before he traveled to Jordan in July 2014, Reinhold said. He described that trip as a “family visit” and declined to say whether the FBI intends to pursue charges against the people who failed to report Abdulazeez’s radicalization.