CHATTANOOGA: Hours before the Tennessee shooting that killed five US servicemen, the suspected gunman texted a close friend a link to an Islamic verse that included the line: “Whosoever shows enmity to a friend of Mine, then I have declared war against him.”
The gunman’s family said in a statement late on Saturday he had suffered from depression, and that they had experienced shock and horror over the violence.
The suspect’s friend said he thought nothing of the text message at the time, but now wonders if it was a clue to Thursday’s rampage in Chattanooga, which has re-ignited concerns about the radicalisation of young Muslim men.
“I didn’t see it as a hint at the time, but it may have been his way of telling me something,” the friend told Reuters on Saturday. He requested anonymity for fear of a backlash.
The suspect, Mohammod Youssuf Abdulazeez, a Kuwaiti-born naturalised US citizen, was killed in a gunfight with police.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is investigating the attack as an act of terrorism, but said it was premature to speculate on the gunman’s motive.
Abdulazeez’s family offered condolences to the families of the “victims of the shooting our son committed on Thursday.”
“There are no words to describe our shock, horror and grief,” they said in a statement.
“The person who committed this horrible crime was not the son we knew and loved,” they said, adding “for many years, our son suffered from depression,” and that “his pain found its expression in this heinous act.”
The family said they were cooperating with authorities and added that now was not the time to say anything publicly beyond expressing sorrow for the victims and their families.
While a firm connection between the 24-year-old suspect and radical Islam has not been established, the shooting follows a series of attacks or thwarted attacks in the United States and other countries by Muslims claiming to be inspired by Islamic State or other militant groups.
Abdulazeez returned from a trip to Jordan in 2014 concerned about conflicts in the Middle East and the reluctance of the United States and other countries to intervene, according to two friends who knew him since elementary school.
He later bought three assault rifles on an online marketplace and used them for target practice, they said.
“That trip was eye-opening for him. He learned a lot about the traditions and culture of the Middle East,” said one of the two friends, the person who received the text message.
Abdulazeez was upset about the 2014 Israeli bombing campaign in Gaza and the civil war in Syria, he said. The other friend said Abdulazeez had always talked about the Middle East, “but I’d say his level of understanding and awareness really rose after he came back.”
US authorities said Abdulazeez sprayed gunfire at a military recruiting centre in a strip mall in Chattanooga, then drove to a Naval Reserve Center about 6 miles (10 km) away, where he killed four Marines before he himself was shot dead.
Three people were wounded, including a sailor who died on Saturday. The US Navy identified the sailor as Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Randall Smith of Paulding, Ohio, who left behind a wife and three young daughters.
“He was an awesome young man,” said Smith’s step-grandmother, Darlene Proxmire. “He loved his wife and children. He loved the Navy.”
Abdulazeez, an engineer, went to the Middle East in 2010 and visited several countries, said the first friend. He then went to Jordan in 2014 to work for his uncle, and lived with his uncle and his grandparents there, he said.
After Abdulazeez returned, he seemed more mellow, less interested in partying. “That is part of what drew us closer. He was a guy who wanted to settle down and get his life going. That connected us,” he said.
The night before the attack, just after 10pm, the friend received a text message from Abdulazeez with a link to a Hadith, or Islamic teaching: http://sunnah.com/nawawi40/38. He showed Reuters the text message on his phone.
REUTERS
