US investigates history of Kuwaiti-born gunman behind marine killings

Federal investigators are trying to determine whether Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez, 24, made contact with any extremist groups during a seven-month trip to Jordan, and a possible recent trip to Yemen, reports Taimur Khan.

Brooklynn Crawford visits a memorial to those killed in Thursday's Chattanooga shootings. Joe Raedle/Getty Images/AFP

NEW YORK // US federal investigators on Friday scoured the electronic devices and social media accounts of the Kuwaiti-born gunman who killed four American marines, in part to determine whether he had made contact with any extremist groups during a seven-month trip to Jordan last year.

The FBI was also investigating whether 24-year-old Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez may have made a recent trip to Yemen.

Law enforcement and intelligence officials are working to figure out if he met with militants in Jordan and was directed to commit a terrorist act in the United States, US officials told the Wall Street Journal.

FBI officials said they have yet to find evidence that Abdulazeez — an electrical engineer who moved to the US from Kuwait as an infant and is believed to have been a naturalised citizen — was either working with ISIL or was a lone wolf attacker potentially inspired by the militants. They are treating the case as a terror investigation, though they have so far not uncovered any links with ISIL or any other extremist groups.

The FBI so far does not have “anything that directly ties” Abdulazeez to these groups, a bureau official said on Thursday night.

Law enforcement officials said they expected ISIL to take responsibility, but that a claim would not prove any links. ISIL took responsibility for a shooting in Garland, Texas in May by two Muslim-Americans inspired by the group but was not thought to have directed the attack.

Mid-morning on Thursday, Abdulazeez drove his white, open-top Ford Mustang to a US military recruiting centre in his hometown of Chattanooga, Tennessee. As he drove past the centre — located in a suburban strip mall — he sprayed the building with bullets, injuring but not killing anyone. He sped away and drove around seven miles to a naval reserve facility, where he again opened fire, this time killing four marines. He also injured three other people in that attack, including a policeman. One of the three is in critical condition.

Abdulazeez was killed, either in a shoot-out with police or from a self-inflicted wound, FBI special agent in charge Edward Reinhold said. An autopsy of the gunman was expected to be conducted on Friday.

The gunman was not on any law or intelligence agency radar as a suspected militant, though his father had temporarily been placed on a terrorist watch list and investigated for giving money to an organisation with potential ties to militants, according to FBI officials. The father was detained and questioned during an overseas trip, but was eventually removed from the watch list.

Abdulazeez maintained a small social media presence, but a blog that the Site monitoring group said belonged to him carried two posts dealing with his thoughts on Islam. These thoughts appeared similar to those expressed in the writings of many other young westerners who have become radicalised, though they made no mention of violence.

In a post titled “A Prison Called Dunya”, Abdulazeez wrote that life is a test “designed to separate the inhabitants of Paradise from the inhabitants of Hellfire”.

His family was reportedly conservative, but well liked by neighbours and integrated into their upper middle class suburban community.

Abdulazeez was reportedly an increasingly devout person, though he was arrested in April for driving under the influence of alcohol. In high school, former classmates told local media that he was popular. He was a talented wrestler and trained in mixed martial arts after graduating.

Under his high school yearbook graduation photo, there was a tongue-in-cheek quote, now eerily prescient: “My name causes national security alerts. What does yours do?”

The Washington Post reported that his older sisters were well liked by their co-workers and made a point to challenge stereotypes about Muslim women. One left her school teaching job and moved away with a husband that her family did not approve of, the Post reported.

The shootings came exactly a month after a white supremacist killed nine African-American worshippers at a church in South Carolina, and US president Barack Obama addressed the attacks in what has become a familiar scene.

“My main message right now is, obviously, the deepest sympathies of the American people to the four Marines that have been killed,” Mr Obama said after meeting with the FBI director on Thursday. “It is a heartbreaking circumstance for these individuals who have served our country with great valour to be killed in this fashion.”

The Greater Islamic Society of Chattanooga, the mosque that was attended by the Abdulazeez family, including the gunman who attended services during this Ramadan, issued a statement condemning the murders.

“We condemn this act in the strongest possible terms as one of cowardice and hate. At the Islamic Center of Greater Chattanooga, we don’t see our community centre as a “Muslim” community; we are Chattanoogans first, and we see ourselves as part of the larger community of Tennesseans grieving today’s act.”

* With additional reporting by Reuters