CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — A gunman unleashed a barrage of gunfire at two military facilities Thursday in Tennessee, killing at least four Marines and wounding a soldier and a police officer, officials said. The shooter also was killed.
U.S. Attorney Bill Killian said officials were treating the attacks as an "act of domestic terrorism," though FBI Special Agent in Charge Ed Reinhold said authorities were still investigating a motive. The first shooting happened around 10:45 a.m., and the attacks were over within a half-hour.
Channel 2's Ross Cavitt traveled to Chattanooga, where he found a growing memorial forming outside the recruiting office where part of the shootings took place Thursday.
Through the night people kept showing up wishing to share their grief and honor those who died on this day.
The first shooting happened at an Armed Forces recruitment center on Old Lee Highway. Investigators said a man in a silver Mustang opened fire on the recruitment center, injuring one Marine at that location, who was shot in the ankle and rushed to a nearby hospital.
Lenisha Lewisn told Cavitt she had pulled up to the strip mall for a salon appointment and parked near the man in the silver convertible.
“He just pulled up and I didn’t think anything of it. He had this drop top and he looked to the side and the next thing we know, he lifts up his arms with a big black gun. There was one shot and then it was endless shots, one after another. Just unloading,” Lewis said.
"All five offices of the military recruiters were just riddled with bullet holes. There was what I thought was a Marine just sitting on the sidewalk. He'd been hit in the back of the leg," said Witness Keith Wheatley.
Police then perused the suspect to a naval training center where four Marines were killed in a shootout with the suspect. The gunman was killed.
The mayor of Chattanooga called the incident "a nightmare for the city."
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"As a city, we will respond to this with every available resource that we have," said Mayor Andy Berke. "I want to say again, it is incomprehensible to see what happened and the way that individuals who proudly serve our country were treated."
Mary Ellen Cahill grew up in Chattanooga but moved to Boston, she was back visiting and mourns for her hometown.
"You just feel so bad for those Marines serving our country," Cahill said.
A U.S. official says the gunman has been identified as 24-year-old Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez.
Officials said there was no indication Abdulazeez was on the radar of federal law enforcement before the shootings.
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.
He is from Hixson, Tennessee, which is just a few miles across the river from Chattanooga.
"Lives have been lost from some faithful people who have been serving our country, and I think I join all Tennesseans in being both sickened and saddened by this," Gov. Bill Haslam said.
Authorities would not say how the gunman died. FBI agent Ed Reinhold said Abdulazeez had "numerous weapons" but would not give details.
"We are looking at every possible avenue, whether it was terrorism, whether it's domestic, international, or whether it was a simple criminal act," Reinhold said.
Within hours of the bloodshed, law officers with guns drawn swarmed what was believed to be Abdulazeez's house, and two females were led away in handcuffs.
A dozen law enforcement vehicles, including a bomb-squad truck and an open-sided Army green truck carrying armed men, rolled into the Hixson neighborhood, and police closed off streets and turned away people trying to reach their homes.
Neighbors told Cavitt they were stunned.
"He was just a neighbor like anyone else, walked the neighborhood, say hi," said neighbor Alijah Wilkerson.
"Seemed like a good kid, a quiet kid, no problems in the neighborhood," said neighbor Dean McDaniel.
Abdulazeez graduated from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in 2012 with a bachelor's in electrical engineering and was a student intern a few years ago at the Tennessee Valley Authority, the federally owned utility that operates power plants and dams across the South.
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In Washington, President Barack Obama pledged a prompt and thorough investigation and said the White House had been in touch with the Pentagon to make sure military installations are being vigilant.
"It is a heartbreaking circumstance for these individuals who served our country with great valor to be killed in this fashion," he said.
Vice President Joe Biden likewise said: "Their families have already given a lot to the country, and now this."
The names of the dead were not immediately released.
U.S. Attorney Bill Killian says investigators do not believe that there are any threats to the general public following the fatal shooting of four marines at a recruiting center and another U.S. military site a few miles apart.
Killian told a news conference Thursday night that the investigation into the shooting is "an ongoing extensive and expansive investigation with federal, state and local agencies, headed by the FBI."
"As far as we know, at this juncture there are no safety concerns for the general public," Killian said.
Authorities also told the news conference that they still have not uncovered a motive for the shootings.
The FBI will take over the investigation which they promise will be a long and thorough one. Agents from the Atlanta field office are on hand to help with the investigation.
In the meantime folks in Chattanooga told Cavitt all they can do is pray, and wait for the answers.
WSBTV
