2015 Chattanooga shootings

On July 16, 2015, Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez opened fire on two military installations in Chattanooga, Tennessee. He first committed a drive-by shooting at a recruiting center, then traveled to a U.S. Navy Reserve center and continued firing. He was killed by police in a gunfight. Four Marines were killed immediately. A Navy sailor, a Marine recruiter, and a police officer were wounded; the sailor died from his injuries two days later. The motive of the shootings is currently under investigation.

Shootings
The shootings began shortly after 10:30 a.m. at the Armed Forces Career Center in a strip mall located on Lee Highway. The Center recruited personnel for branches of the United States military, including the U.S. Army, the U.S. Air Force, and the Tennessee National Guard. There, Abdulazeez fired 25 to 30 shots into the office from inside a silver rental Ford Mustang convertible, wounding a U.S. Marine. He then escaped and led members of the Chattanooga Police Department on a pursuit.

Abdulazeez drove 7 mi to a U.S. Navy Reserve center on Amnicola Highway in Chattanooga, where he rammed his vehicle through a security gate. He drove to one of the center's buildings and first fired at it, then charged inside and continued firing, fatally wounding a U.S. Navy sailor. Abdulazeez then exited the building through the back and entered a fenced motor pool area, where he shot more people. Three to five minutes after the second shooting began, he reentered the building, where he fired upon responding police officers and was fatally shot by them.

Investigation
The entire incident lasted over thirty minutes, and an approximate total of 100 rounds were fired by Abdulazeez. Lock-downs were put into place at locations near the sites of the shootings.

Following the shootings, officials stated that Abdulazeez was carrying an AK-47-style semi-automatic rifle with a 30-round magazine and a 9mm handgun. A 12-gauge shotgun was also recovered from his vehicle. He was also wearing a load carrying vest that could hold extra magazines and ammunition. An additional rifle was seized at Abdulazeez's home by police.

In addition to the aforementioned weapons, investigators discovered a 9mm Glock handgun that may have been privately owned by one of the slain Marines and are determining if it was used against Abdulazeez during the shootings. It was also determined that the reserve center's commanding officer used a personal firearm against Abdulazeez.

Victims
Five people, excluding the gunman, died in the shootings. They included four U.S. Marines who died at the scene and one U.S. Navy sailor who died at a hospital two days later. All of them were shot at the U.S. Navy Reserve center, one inside a building and the other four at a nearby motor pool area. Some of the victims died while returning fire at Abdulazeez, providing cover for a larger group of potential victims who were escaping over a fence. They were identified as:

In addition, two other people were wounded. They were Sergeant DeMonte Cheeley, a Marine recruiter who was shot in the leg, treated, and released; and Dennis Pedigo, Jr., a police sergeant who was shot in the ankle.

Perpetrator
Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez (September 5, 1990 – July 16, 2015), a resident of Hixson, Tennessee, was identified as the gunman.

Personal life
Abdulazeez, a naturalized American citizen, was also a Jordanian citizen born in Kuwait. However, according to Jordanian sources, he was a Palestinian with Jordanian citizenship; his parents were self-described as "Palestinian". He immigrated to the U.S. with his family in 1996 and received citizenship as a minor in 2003 under the Child Citizenship Act of 2000 when his parents became naturalized citizens themselves. During the Second Intifada, Abdulazeez, then fifteen, traveled with his father to Jamma'in, the village in Samaria where the father was born, with the goal of acquiring a Palestinian ID.

Abdulazeez earned an engineering degree from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in 2012 and learned to manage electrical power systems as an intern with the Tennessee Valley Authority. On May 20, 2013, he began working as an engineer at the Perry Nuclear Generating Station in North Perry, Ohio, but was let go ten days later after failing a drug test. According to a spokesperson for FirstEnergy, which runs the station, Abdulazeez only worked and received general training at an administrative office building, and did not have access to sensitive information. In the three months prior to the shootings, Abdulazeez was employed with Superior Essex as a supervisor for its Franklin office.

According to The Washington Post, both of Abdulazeez's parents were self-described in their divorce proceedings "as natives of 'the State of Palestine'", and they "maintained a strict, conservative Muslim lifestyle." The father had been placed on a watch-list and investigated some years ago "on suspicion of donating money to an organization suspected of being a terrorist front." The investigation did not lead to any charges, and he was later removed from the watch-list.

Mental stability and substance abuse
According to a family representative, Abdulazeez was abusing sleeping pills, opioids, painkillers, and marijuana along with alcohol. He had also been in thousands of dollars of debt and was planning to file for bankruptcy. In addition, when he was twelve or thirteen years old, he had been seeing a child psychiatrist. Several years ago, relatives of Abdulazeez attempted to have him admitted into inpatient care, but were unable to after a health insurer refused to approve the expense.

At one point, in 2012 or 2013, Abdulazeez began receiving therapy for his drug and alcohol abuse. He had also received treatment for depression and often stopped taking his medication. Following the shootings, Abdulazeez's parents claimed that their son had been suffering from depression. According to a source that was provided by CNN, Abdulazeez was suffering from bipolar disorder.

Motive
According to the Chattanooga Times Free Press, the FBI is "not yet" calling Abdulazeez a homegrown terrorist. Special Agent Ed Reinhold stated that "[h]e is being treated as a homegrown violent extremist" and that the FBI is exploring the idea that Abdulazeez was self-radicalized. By August 15, however, the FBI was not able to determine his motives or whether he was radicalized.

Abdulazeez did not attract the attention of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the period leading up to the shootings. Starting in 2003, he traveled to Jordan a total of five times. The latest was a visit to a maternal uncle between April and November 2014, which was arranged by his family, who wanted him to get away from friends they believed were bad influences on him. He also traveled to Kuwait in 2008. His sole previous contact with law enforcement was an April 2015 arrest for driving under the influence of alcohol, which was said by a family spokesman to have triggered a severe increase in his depression. Following his 2014 visit to Jordan, Abdulazeez told friends that Jordan, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia ought to have sent more help to Hamas during the 2014 Israel–Gaza conflict. They also noted a change in his behavior and that he made critical statements against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIS).

In recent months, he had been regularly attending Friday prayers at a mosque. It was reported that in the days preceding the shooting, Abdulazeez is thought to have written a blog post in which he urges study of the Quran as a meaning to life. According to his family, he searched online for martyrdom, and had been wondering whether becoming a martyr would absolve him of his sins. On July 20, several writings belonging to Abdulazeez, dating as far back as 2013, were discovered. In them, he wrote about having suicidal thoughts after losing his job due to his drug use and his desire to "becom[e] a martyr". Authorities searching his computer found that he owned CDs and had downloaded videos by al-Qaeda recruiter Anwar al-Awlaki. An FBI spokesman stated that "[t]here are some pretty radicalized thoughts" in the writings.

None of the writings laid out plans for an attack or spelled out a motive, however. Motivation is surmised from the fact that on July 11, Abdulazeez bought a supply of ammunition at Walmart. On July 13, he wrote long diary entries, describing life as a kind of prison and warning, "Don't be fooled by your desires, this life is short and bitter and the opportunity to submit to Allah may pass you by." He also wrote that people mistakenly thought that the Sahaba (Companions of the Prophet) were priests "living in monasteries." This, he wrote, is untrue, and that "[e]veryone one of them fought Jihad for the sake of Allah. Everyone one of them had to make sacrifices in their lives. [sic]" Hours before the shooting, he texted an Islamic verse to a friend that read, "Whosoever shows enmity to a friend of mine, then I have declared war against him."

An official participating in the investigation told The New York Times there was no evidence that Abdulazeez was in contact with any social media recruiters working for ISIS, explaining, "This case appears to be much more like the old model, where he was interested in radical Islam and sought to learn more about it online by looking at videos and readings." According to professor Charles Kurzman, "We are seeing a shift away from large-scale elaborate attempts to use weapons of mass destruction or other high profile plots — the hallmark of al-Qaida and its affiliates — toward a lower tech do-it-yourself strategy that is being propagated by the self declared Islamic State."

Leaders

 * Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke called the shootings "a nightmare for the city of Chattanooga."
 * Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam said, "I join all Tennesseans in being both sickened and saddened by this."
 * President Barack Obama called the event "heartbreaking" and expressed his condolences to the families of the victims. On July 21, he ordered all flags at the White House, federal buildings and U.S. embassies overseas to be flown at half-staff. The order comes after criticism mounted from conservative and veterans groups that Obama's initial response to the shootings was inadequate.
 * Navy Secretary Ray Mabus called the shootings "devastating and senseless", offered his condolences to the families of the victims, and promised an investigation into future vulnerabilities.
 * Vice President Joe Biden, speaking at a memorial for the victims, expressed his condolences to their families and made defiant remarks against potential extremists targeting the U.S.

Muslim organizations
Muslim and mosque leaders across Tennessee reacted to the shootings. Paul Galloway, representing the American Muslim Advisory Council, said that Muslims in Tennessee "express our deepest condolences to the victims and their families. Terrorists seek to divide our society, and we pray that all Americans will stand together united against their wanton violence and hatred."

The National Executive Director of Council on American-Islamic Relations, Nihad Awad, said, "Such inexcusable acts of violence must be repudiated by Americans of all faiths and backgrounds." The National Vice-President of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community USA stated, "While we do not yet know what motivated this man, we urge calm, defer to authorities to justly resolve this, and pray for the departed U.S. Marines."

Security measures
In the wake of the shootings, Defense Secretary Ashton Carter and Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson called for increased security measures at federal facilities out of caution. On July 29, Carter released a two-page memorandum directing military commanders and civilian leaders to develop new security plans and measures, including "the option of additional armed personnel". He put an emphasis of added security at small, unguarded facilities such as the two military installations attacked by Abdulazeez. On August 15, during a speech at a memorial for the victims, he called for a review of domestic security procedures for military installations across the country.

Senator Ron Johnson announced his intention to introduce a bill that would end the ban on firearms being carried in military installations. The Navy made plans to station armed guards at all 70 reserve centers not located on military bases and is also considering providing armed protection for recruiting centers.

On July 18, two days after the shootings, the governors of Florida, Texas, and Indiana ordered the arming of National Guardsmen at military offices and other facilities, along with the installation of bulletproof glass and more efficient video surveillance equipment. Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Arkansas followed suit the next day. Utah Governor Gary Herbert also announced that the state would "explore additional ways to protect our men and women serving in the Armed Forces". In 2014, Utah had passed legislation allowing soldiers at National Guard facilities to carry weapons.