Four Marines Dead After Gunman Opens Fire in Tennessee

By Kelsey Harkness

Four United States Marines were killed on Thursday after a gunman opened fire at an armed services recruiting center and a naval reserve facility in Chattanooga, Tenn.

The suspect, identified by law enforcement as 24-year-old Mohammod Youssuf Abdulazeez, was born in Kuwait and came to the United States in 1996. He was also killed.

The United States attorney for the Eastern District of Tennessee, William C. Killian, said officials were treating the attacks as an “act of domestic terrorism,” but the FBI and other federal agencies said it would be “premature to speculate on the motives of the shooter at the time.”

In a brief statement to press, President Obama expressed his “deepest sympathies to the American people, to the four Marines that have been killed,” and said the attacks appear to be carried out by a “lone gunman.”

Investigators said the attacks occurred over the course of about 30 minutes in two different locations, first at a military recruiting center on Lee Highway and next at a naval reserve facility on Amnicola Highway less than 10 miles away.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the largest Muslim civil rights organization in the U.S., condemned the shooting.

Prominent politicians also spoke out against the attacks, among them some 2016 contenders.

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal was the first 2016 candidate to call the murders an “act of terrorism,” which has not yet been confirmed by law enforcement.

Within hours of the four Marines deaths, residents of Chattanooga came out to show their support.

Navy Secretary Ray Mabus issued a statement that in part read, “While we expect our Sailors and Marines to go into harm’s way, and they do so without hesitation, an attack at home, in our community, is insidious and unfathomable.”