Too early to know if gunman was radicalized

The FBI says Mohammad Youssef Abdulazeez crashed his vehicle through the gate, exchanged shots with one of the service members, blasted his way through the building, and then back outside to the fenced-in motor pool.

As Abdulazeez roamed the building, servicemembers helped others flee out the back door, and someone apparently fired at Abdulazeez in an attempt to stop him, Reinhold said. “After they had gotten to safety, some willingly ran back into the fight”. Marine Thomas J. Sullivan of Springfield, Massachusetts.

“I can tell you that our marines reacted how you would expect – rapidly going from room to room, they got their fellow marines to safety”, said Brier.

Those troops had just returned from a training exercise in California.

Reinhold also provided details on what exactly happened at both facilities last Thursday.

Ultimately, there are far too many factors about the Chattanooga shooting to allow sweeping conclusions about Abdulazeez’s motives or the greater societal debate of America and its guns – though futher exploration of all of these topics is needed.

Calling Abdulazeez a “homegrown violent extremist”, Reinhold said investigators believe he acted alone.

A service member inside saw the gunman and fired several rounds at him after the gate crash, Reinhold said.

The gunman in Chattanooga opened fire at a military recruiting office and a Navy-Marine operations center several miles away. It was there that the remaining four were killed: Staff Sgt. David Wyatt, 35, of Morganton, N.C. Navy Logistics Specialist 2nd Class Randall Smith, 26, of Paulding, Ohio, died July 18 from wounds sustained during the shooting.

But a Jordanian official says the uncle is under investigation over the shooter’s time with him there.

“We do not have any indication that anyone else was assisting him on that day”, Reinhold said.

Reinhold said the Federal Bureau of Investigation knew where the weapons were purchased, though he declined to share that information with the media.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam says temporary security measures have been implemented after a gunman in Chattanooga killed five USA troops last week.

“The courageous men and women of our military who volunteer to defend our nation around the world should not be left defenseless at military facilities here at home”.

Nonetheless, FBI investigators in the USA discovered that “Abdulazeez wrote about suicide and martyrdom as long ago as 2013”.

Reinhold said only that the FBI would investigate every possibility and every relative, no matter where they are.

Officials also are looking at a seven-month trip Abdulazeez took previous year to Jordan, where he spent time with his grandfather and uncle.

Abed al-Kader Ahmad al-Khateeb told The Associated Press that he was barred from seeing his client and that family members were also prevented from visiting the detainee. One source cautioned that Abdulazeez was born in Kuwait, but his family, including the uncle, are of Palestinian extraction, so contacts with Hamas might not be significant.