Chattanooga shooter Mohammed Abdulazeez told a friend that ISIS
was "doing wrong" and "it was a stupid group and it was
completely against Islam," the friend told CNN on Monday.
The friend,
James Petty, also said that Abdulazeez taught him how to shoot an AR-15 assault
rifle and that the two would practice in the woods.
The revelations
about Abdulazeez came as sources told CNN that writings uncovered by
investigators indicated Abdulazeez was displeased with the U.S.
government, particularly its war on terror.
The writings are
not thought to be recent -- some are more than a year old, predating his
much-publicized trip to Jordan -- and should not be considered a diary of any
sort, according to a person familiar with the family's interviews with
investigators and a law enforcement official briefed on the investigation.
The writings
also include other anti-U.S. sentiments and are consistent with someone who is
having suicidal thoughts, the sources said.
As the country mourns the deaths of five service members gunned
down Thursday in Tennessee, investigators in both the United States and Jordan
are trying to learn what prompted the attack.
Abdulazeez first
shot up a military recruiting center at a Chattanooga strip mall, then drove to
a local Navy operations support center and launched another attack, killing
four Marines and a sailor. Abdulazeez died in a gunfight with law enforcement.
New details have
emerged over the past few days. Among them:
• Abdulazeez
suffered from depression and "was not the son we knew and loved," his
family said in a statement over the weekend. "We extend our deepest
sympathies and condolences to the families of the honorable service members and
police officers who were victims of the shooting our son committed on
Thursday." A police officer was among the wounded.
• The family has
also told investigators that the 24-year-old had been abusing drugs for some
time, according to a source familiar with the family's interviews with
investigators. The drugs reportedly included "party drugs" and
marijuana. Petty, Abdulazeez's friend, told CNN that his buddy had a drug
problem and used marijuana heavily, to the point that his parents were
constantly calling to check on his whereabouts.
• Abdulazeez's
family sent him to Jordan last year to get him away from Chattanooga friends
who they said were bad influences on him, the relatives told investigators.
• Some relatives
and friends told investigators they detected changes in his behavior after he
returned from Jordan last year, a law enforcement official said.
• Jordanian
security investigators have interviewed Abdulazeez's extended family, asking
where he went and with whom he spoke, government sources there told CNN.
• Authorities
are investigating a text message from Abdulazeez to a friend before the attack,
law enforcement sources said. The message included an Islamic verse that says,
"Whoever shows enmity to a friend of mine, then I have declared war
against him."
• Abdulazeez had
a hard time keeping a job because of his manic depressive/bipolar disorder and
drug use for which he had sought treatment with a psychiatrist, according to
the source familiar with the family's interviews.
• "It
grieves us beyond belief to know that his pain found its expression in this
heinous act of violence," the Abdulazeez family said in its statement.
"I think mental health professionals would be not happy
with what the parents are assessing, in saying, 'Well, he was depressed, and
therefore that's why he became a killer like this,' " CNN law enforcement
analyst Tom Fuentes said. "People with depression do not turn,
necessarily, into psychopathic killers -- as he did."
U.S. Attorney
Bill Killian said the shootings are being investigated as terrorism.
So far, there is
nothing connecting the attacker to ISIS or other international terror groups,
said Ed Reinhold, special agent in charge of the regional FBI office.
Abdulazeez was not on any U.S. databases of suspected terrorists.
Boosting
security
Some governors are increasing security
measures for National Guard recruiters and military facilities. Several have
called for arming National Guard members.
Florida Gov. Rick Scott ordered National Guard members at six
state recruitment centers to be relocated to armories until security is
improved. In addition, qualified Guard members will be armed.
Texas Gov. Greg
Abbott has called for armed National Guard personnel at military facilities
throughout the state.
And Oklahoma
Gov. Mary Fallin authorized the arming of certain full-time personnel in
military installations throughout the state.
"It is
painful enough when we lose members of our armed forces when they are sent in
harm's way," she said in a statement. "But it is unfathomable that
they should be vulnerable for attack in our own communities."
Grief
across the country
The victims came from across the country, but
united in Chattanooga, brought together by their service in the military.
Marines Gunnery Sgt. Thomas Sullivan of Massachusetts was a
two-time Purple Heart recipient. He served three tours of duty.
Lance Cpl.
Squire K. Wells, better known as "Skip," graduated from high school
three years ago. The Georgia native joined the Marines in 2014 and had already
earned a National Defense Service Medal.
Marines Staff
Sgt. David Wyatt of Arkansas served two tours of duty in Iraq and one in
Afghanistan. His wife posted about his death on Facebook. "He was such a
great husband and father," one commenter wrote.
Marines Sgt.
Carson Holmquist was also a husband and father and served two tours of duty in
Afghanistan. Upon one of his homecomings, his family held up a sign that read,
"We've waited 244 days for this moment. Welcome home Sgt. Holmquist."
Navy Petty Officer
Randall Smith of Ohio was a logistics specialist. He saw the gunman in last
week's attack and warned people around him, family members said, but was unable
to get away.
On Sunday,
Smith's mother visited a makeshift memorial for the victims. Paula Proxmire
cried as she left a baseball glove, a baseball and an American flag in honor of
her son.
Red, white and
blue balloons covered the memorial, along with a poster with pictures of the
victims.
About
those flags ...
While many remained in mourning Monday, outrage
arose via a bogus assertion that President Barack Obama failed to issue a
proclamation to lower flags around government buildings to half-staff despite
doing so for pop singer Whitney Houston.
Many on social
media fell for the bait, even former pitching ace Curt Schilling, but there was
no truth to it. Obama did not order the flags at half-staff for Houston's
death.
Gov. Chris Christie controversially ordered New Jerseys flags to half-staff for
Houston, as he did for saxophonist Clarence Clemons of Bruce Springsteen's E.
Street Band.
The last time
there was a national
call to fly the flags at half-staff was Memorial Day, the rules for which
dictate keeping the flags at half-staff until noon. As for honoring people, the
flags were last lowered in April, in commemoration of President Abraham
Lincoln's death, and in December 2013, in honor of South Africa's Nelson
Mandela.
Among the
tragedies that have prompted the honor are the 2009 mass shooting at Fort Hood,
Texas; the Sandy Hook
Elementary School shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, in 2012; the 2012 attack on
the U.S. Embassy in Benghazi, Libya; the Boston Marathon bombings in 2013; and
the 2013 Washington Navy Yard shooting.
Flags are flown
at half-staff on holidays such as Memorial Day, Patriot Day, Peace Officers
Memorial Day and Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day. They're also lowered for the
annual Fallen Firefighters Memorial Service.
Because of confusion over when to lower the flags, President
Dwight Eisenhower in 1954 issued rules outlining the proper times to do so,
according to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. The flags are to be
lowered at all federal institutions for the death of a present or former
president, vice president, House speaker, Senate president pro tem, Cabinet
member, Supreme Court justice and other high-ranking officials.
When a
congressman dies, flags are flown at half-staff in Washington and in the state
from where the lawmaker hailed. States also lower their flags at all of their
federal facilities when a governor dies, the VA says.
"The
president may order the flag to be flown at half-staff to mark the death of
other officials, former officials, or foreign dignitaries. In addition to these
occasions, the president may order half-staff display of the flag after other
tragic events," the VA says.
For those
pondering why Fort Hood would earn the honor but Chattanooga would not, that's
not totally clear. It could be related to the Fort Hood shooting being deemed
an act of workplace violence. A military jury in 2013 convicted Army Maj. Nidal Hasan in the
rampage.
Soldiers and
victims' families have urged the Defense Department to reclassify the mass
shooting as an act of terror, to no avail, though Congress' National Defense
Authorization Act of 2015 did
make victims eligible for Purple Hearts and its civilian equivalent, the
Secretary of Defense Medal for the Defense of Freedom, earlier this year.
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