CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (AP) – A family spokesman says a Kuwaiti-born man who shot and killed five service members in Tennessee suffered mental health problems since his early teen years and also fought drug and alcohol abuse.
A representative of the family of 24-year-old Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez says relatives believe those struggles are at the heart of last week’s killings at a pair of military sites in Chattanooga.
The person spoke Sunday on condition of anonymity to avoid unwanted publicity.
Authorities and friends say they’ve seen no evidence that Abdulazeez was a Muslim radical, and the spokesman says the man’s relatives didn’t, either.
The representative says Abdulazeez spent months in Jordan last year, but only to help him get away from substance abuse and a group of friends who relatives considered a bad influence.