Chattanooga shooter was possibly troubled; motive a mystery

Mohammod Youssuf Abdulazeez, the man who killed five people at two US military facilities in Chattanooga, Tennessee last week, was critical of tactics employed by the Islamic State militant group, his friend said Monday.

The Internet searches were discovered on electronic devices such as his smartphone analyzed over the weekend by the Federal Bureau of Investigation Lab in Quantico, Virginia, several counter-terrorism officials confirmed to ABC News. “Obviously, none of these products made them do it or endorsed their actions, just as I do not endorse this heinous act”.

The official spoke Monday to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation.

However, a friend told CNN that Abdulazeez thought extremists like the Islamic State group were “doing wrong” and “it was a stupid group and it was completely against Islam”.

Governor Steve Bullock (D-MT) has ordered all flags in Montana be flown at half-staff on Tuesday in honor of the USA military members who died in the line of duty last week. FBI agent Ed Reinhold has told reporters investigators were looking into all aspects of his life. “At the Islamic Society of Greater Chattanooga, we don’t see our community center as a “Muslim” community;we are Chattanoogans first, and we see ourselves as part of the larger community of Tennesseans grieving today’s act”. A representative of Abdulazeez’s family said the Chattanooga shooter expressed suicidal urges as early as 2013 and wrote about “becoming a martyr” after he lost his job, ABC News reported.

Recently, Abdulazeez had begun working a night shift at a manufacturing plant and was taking medication to help with problems sleeping in the daytime, the representative said, adding that he also had a prescription for muscle relaxants because of a back problem. The young man was also thousands of dollars in debt and considering filing for bankruptcy.

Abdulazeez had been arrested at 2 a.m. on April 20 – a day celebrated annually by marijuana users – this year after he was stopped by police for “driving over 10 miles per hour under the speed limit, and stopping at green lights”.

The reasons for Mohammad Youssef Abdulazeez’s stopover in the Qatari capital Doha or the duration of his stay are still unknown, reports Reuters.

“He bragged about [the car], and was showing it off to friends about how fast it would go”, the family representative said Sunday.

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. _The FBI has recovered a pistol that might have been privately owned and used by one of the Marines killed here on Thursday during the shooting at the Navy Operational Support Center, according to law enforcement officials. The authorities seem extremely reluctant to tell us exactly what these anti-American sentiments were. He owned guns and would shoot squirrels and practice on targets behind his house.

His pending court date for a DUI arrest had him and his family very anxious, the family representative said. The FBI is investigating whether he was radicalized during that seven month trip.

But a family spokesman described the writings, which are at least a year old, as, in the words of The Times, “a loose assemblage” of Abdulazeez’s thoughts. “The person who committed this disgusting crime was not the son we knew and loved”. “For many years, our son suffered from depression”.