The Chattanooga Police Department tweeted shortly after 12:15 p.m. Thursday that the “active shooting situation is over,” but not before four Marines and a shooter had been killed.
Updated Friday at 7:31 a.m.
Gov. Bill Haslam and Sen. Bob Corker were among those who spoke at a press conference late Thursday night.
Haslam called Chattanooga a “great city with a broken heart”.
Corker says he knows Chattanooga and America as a whole will come around the families who lost loved ones yesterday when four Marines were shot and killed at two military facilities.
Corker also placed his support behind those investigating the shooting.
“This community will do everything they can to make sure that these law enforcement folks might have everything they need to understand why this young person had the motive and the desire to do this senseless thing which has shaken our nation,” said Corker.
Updated at 8:00 p.m.
There has been some discrepancy in news reports over the spelling of the alleged shooter’s name. The FBI has identified him as
Mohammod Youssuf Abdulazeez, while NPR stated earlier that his name was
Mohammed
Yousef
Abdul Aziz.
According to law enforcement sources, the 24-year old was born in Kuwait to Jordanian parents. But the family had lived for some time in Hixson, Tennessee — about ten miles northeast of downtown Chattanooga. The suspect reportedly attended high school in the area.
There has been no public speculation among law enforcement as to the motive for the shooting or specifically, the targeting of two separate military facilities.
The
Chattanooga Times Free Press has been posting frequent updates to its website, including a photo of a man believed to be the shooting suspect:
BREAKING: Mohammad Youssduf Adbulazeer was arrested on a DUI charge on April 20, 2015.
http://t.co/AGzuqBozcX
pic.twitter.com/7GKI2TDsM7— Times Free Press (@TimesFreePress)
July 16, 2015
Law enforcement officials are saying they believe the suspect acted alone. And according to the Associated Press, it doesn’t appear he was ”
on the radar of federal law enforcement” as a potential threat.
Governor Haslam travelled to Chattanooga Thursday evening for a briefing. Earlier, President Obama made a statement from the White House:
“It is a heartbreaking circumstance” —
@POTUS on the shooting in Chattanooga
https://t.co/sS7cQen0Qj— The White House (@WhiteHouse)
July 17, 2015
Updated at 3:25 p.m.
NPR’s breaking news blog
The Two Way is reporting that the alleged shooter’s name is Mohammed Yousef Abdul Aziz. The name was given to NPR’s Dina Temple-Raston by law enforcement sources.
Original Post
The attack took place at a Navy recruiting facility on Amnicola Highway in Chattanooga. Shots were previously fired at a separate military recruiting center seven miles away, where no injuries were reported.
Shortly thereafter, Governor Haslam said in a statement:
“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
@BillHaslam says he’s “sickened and saddened” by
#CHA shooting. Does not provide update on situation.
pic.twitter.com/HHRnhFjZlc— Chas Sisk (@chassisk)
July 16, 2015
At this time, the
Chattanooga Times Free press is reporting that the victims’ names have not been released.
Their families have not yet been notified.
The FBI agent in charge, Ed Reinhold, said in a press conference that it is believed the shooter was “from the area or residing in the area” prior to today’s events.
After saying law enforcement was treating the situation as an “act of domestic terrorism,” Bill Killian, the U.S. Attorney of the Eastern District of Tennessee, took pains to backtrack. He later told reporters, “Do not get caught up in labels.”
“The FBI and the other agencies are going to investigate this case thoroughly. They will determine — after the facts are determined — whether it’s an act of terrorism at all. Whether it’s a crime, and what the nature of that crime is. Or whether it is a combination of those. And I would encourage you to not put a label to the investigation at this point, whether it be international, domestic or any other kind of terrorism, including criminal acts.”
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