Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez: Chattanooga Shooter Identified As 24-Year-Old Man From Middle-Class Family
Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez opened fire at two military facilities in Chatanooga, Tennessee. The gunman killed four marines and injured three other individuals before he was killed. It hasn’t been confirmed whether he was shot by authorities or if he killed himself. To friends and neighbors, he was known as a well-behaved and polite kid who drove under the influence and kept a mysterious blog.
Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez as the gunman who’s responsible for the Chattanooga shootings that took place on Thursday morning, July 16. He’s being identified as a 24-year-old man who came from a middle-class Muslim family. They lived in Hixson, a middle-class Chattanooga suburb. According to a NBC News report, Abdulazeez is a U.S. citizen who originally came from Kuwait. He arrived in the United States in 1996 with his parents.
It was previously reported via CBS News that he was a 41-year-old man from Phoenix, Arizona. It turns out that information was a mistake. The gunman’s first name is spelled Muhammad, although his public records and the FBI list him as Mohammod. His last run-in with the law was on April 21, 2015, for driving under the influence in Hamilton County, Tennessee, according to a report on the Chattanoogan.com. A recent booking photo from his arrest shows Muhammad appeared in the mug shot with a closed-mouth smile and a fully grown beard.
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
Abdulazeez attended Red Bank High School. Both his Facebook profile and his yearbook feature photographs of him with a clean-shaven face and a shorter hairstyle. Abdulazeez’s favorite quote proudly reads, “My name causes national security alerts. What does yours do?”
Senior quote: “My name causes national security alerts. What does yours do?” http://t.co/cL3wXBf2qj pic.twitter.com/QfhV5PcJHQ
— Times Free Press (@TimesFreePress) July 16, 2015
He graduated from the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga in 2012, according to his mother’s Facebook page and his resume posted on Indeed.com. Muhammad graduated with a degree in electrical engineering. He held various internships with the Global Trade Express, Mohawk Industries, and the Tennessee Valley Authority.
Abdulazeez owned a blog that had two blog posts about Islam. According to the Daily Beast, his last post was written on July 13, three days before the shooting. Abdulazeez’s blog posts were titled “A Prison Called Dunya” and “Understanding Islam: The Story of the Three Blind Men.”
His blog was found by the SITE Intelligence group, an organization that tracks international terrorist groups. Muhammad’s last blog post remarked about how “life is short and bitter” and Muslims should not let “the opportunity to submit to Allah… pass you by.”
Although Abdulazeez was on the FBI watch list, he was never under investigation by the agency. According to law enforcement, his father was investigated several years ago for giving money to an organization that may have had ties to terrorist groups. Abdulazeez was scheduled to appear in court on July 30.
[Image from Facebook]
