Four marines killed in shooting in Chattanooga, Tennessee
Posted July 16, 2015 9:42 am.
Last Updated July 16, 2015 1:33 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (NEWS 1130) – The death toll in the shootings in Tennessee includes four US Marines and the sole gunman believed responsible.
A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told The Associated Press that two others, a soldier and a police officer, were wounded.
Another official says the gunman in the shootings has been identified as 24-year-old Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez.
He was believed to have been born in Kuwait, and it was unclear whether he was a US or Kuwaiti citizen. The official was speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing, sensitive investigation. It was not immediately clear whether the gunman’s first name was spelled Muhammad or Mohammad.
He is from Hixson, Tennessee, which is just a few miles across the river from Chattanooga.
The shootings happened at two military recruiting offices in Chattanooga on Thursday, sending troops scrambling for safety.
Witnesses said a man sprayed bullets at the glass doors of a military recruiting center at a strip mall on Lee Highway, and the US Navy tweeted that a shooting happened at a separate location — the Navy Reserve center on Amnicola Highway. The two sites are 7½ miles apart.
Gina Mule, a server at a restaurant, said she saw a man who’d been in a silver convertible Mustang, firing a “high-powered rifle” at the recruiting offices at about 10:50 a.m.
She said she first heard “Pow, pow, pow!” She then went to a window, through which she said she saw the man firing shots.
“I don’t know how many shots he fired, but it was a lot,” she said.
A second witness, April Grimmett, said she was working at a hair salon near the recruiting center when she looked out a window and saw a man ducking in between cars.
“Shortly after that, we heard the (shots). It was very loud and very fast,” Grimmett said, without saying what happened to the man she had seen.
A photo that she took shows glass doors damaged by the gunfire.
“I could not believe how many bullet holes were in that door. It was insane,” she said.
Fred Wright, a salesman at a nearby auto parts store, told CNN that after he heard gunshots, three people ran into the shop, hollering they thought “someone was shooting at them.”
Wright said he called 911.
“Sounded like it was 30, 40 shots to me,” Wright said, adding that he never saw a shooter.
“Horrific incident in our community,” Berke, the mayor, tweeted. “We will release details as they are confirmed. Prayers to all those affected.”
Chattanooga State Community College asked people on its main campus to stay inside because of a “confirmed shooting,” the school said on Twitter.
Memorial Hospital in Chattanooga is “on precautionary lockdown” due to the shooting reports, hospital system spokeswoman Lisa McCluskey said.
“We have not received any shooting victims,” McCluskey said. “We are still accepting new patients.” The lockdown, she said, “is just a precautionary measure.”
