Shootings at Chattanooga military facilities leave 4 Marines, gunman dead
A witness observed a silver mustang approach in front of a National
Guard office. The witness observed the murderer's arm hanging out the
vehicle while he was shooting the rifle. He never exited the vehicle, he
unloaded his rifle in front of the building, pointing and unloading 20
to 30 rounds at the front door . He then drove off onto the highway,
several miles away to a second military building, a naval reserve
center, killing 4 marines and then he was killed by law enforcement
Federal prosecutor treating attack as 'an act of domestic terrorism'
Shootings at a pair of
military facilities in Chattanooga, Tenn., Thursday, left five people
dead, including four Marines and the lone gunman, officials said.
"It is incomprehensible to see
what happened," Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke said at a news conference
Thursday afternoon. "This is a nightmare for the city of Chattanooga."
Three other people, including a
Chattanooga police officer, were wounded in the shootings, Berke said.
They were transported to local hospitals with non-life-threatening
injuries.
The shootings began shortly
after 10:30 a.m. at a National Guard office in a strip mall on Lee
Highway. A witness there described hearing as many as 20 shots fired
there before the gunman fled. A photo posted to Facebook by a witness shows the door of the office littered with bullet holes.
The shooter then drove 7 miles
to the Chattanooga naval reserve center, where a witness told CNN she
saw a man with "a high-powered rifle" fire multiple shots from a
convertible silver Mustang into recruiting offices at the center shortly
before 11 a.m. ET.
Four U.S. Marines were killed at the naval center, Pentagon officials told CNN. Their names have yet to be released.
The gunman, who has yet to be
publicly identified, was killed at the scene. But multiple news outlets
identified the suspected shooter as 24-year-old Muhammad Youssef
Abdulazeez.
"This individual brutally and
brazenly attacked members of our armed forces," Chattanooga Police Chief
Fred Fletcher said at the news conference. He declined to speculate on a
motive.
Because the shootings occurred at U.S. military facilities, the FBI is leading the investigation.
U.S. District Attorney William C. Killian said officials were treating the shootings "as an act of domestic terrorism."
But Ed Reinhold, special agent in charge of the FBI's Knoxville field
office, said at this point there is no evidence to suggest it was.As news of the shootings broke, Berke cut short a news conference at City Hall.
"This is a very, very terrible
situation," he told reporters. "I'm very concerned about what's going
on. We need to figure out how to handle it."
Hospitals, businesses and the nearby Chattanooga State Community College were placed on lockdown.
Early Thursday afternoon, the Chattanooga Police Department announced via Twitter that the active shooter situation was over.
Thursday's shootings occurred less than two years after the September 2013 massacre at the Washington Navy Yard, where a lone gunman killed 12 people in the second-deadliest attack on a military base in U.S. history.
The gunman in that attack, Aaron
Alexis, was a former Navy petty officer third class who had been
honorably discharged two and a half years prior to the shooting.
Earlier this month, authorities
investigated another possible shooting at the Navy Yard after an
employee reported hearing possible gunfire. The base was later declared
all clear.
///-------------///
|
Four Marines and one police officer were shot Thursday morning at two military facilities including a Navy recruiting building in Chattanooga, Tenn., according to multiple news reports.
However, the Marine Corps has yet to confirm whether any Marines were injured in this morning’s shooting.
“We are working closely with the U.S. Navy and local and federal law enforcement to determine exactly what happened today in Chattanooga. We cannot confirm any Marine Corps casualties at this time,” the Marine Corps said in a statement. The service said it would post updates to its Facebook page.
Chattanooga police said in a tweet Thursday afternoon that the active shooter situation was over, though there was no word on what had happened to the suspect or suspects. The Chattanooga Free Times Press is reporting that the shooter has been killed.
Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke said at a news conference that it was a "very terrible situation." He did not release any other details.
Police have set up a command post near one of the sites. It was not immediately clear how many people may have been hurt.
U.S. Navy officials said there was a shooting at a Navy building on Amnicola Highway in Chattanooga.
Law enforcement officials told recruiters at a facility seven miles away on Old Lee Highway that they were also attacked by a shooter in a car. The shooter stopped in front of the recruiting facility, shot at the building and drove off, said Brian Lepley, a spokesman with the U.S. Army Recruiting Command in Fort Knox, Kentucky.
The Army recruiters at the facility told Lepley they were not hurt and had evacuated; Lepley said he had no information about recruiters for the other branches at the facility.
The Navy Operational Support Center and Marine Corps Reserve Center Chattanooga sits between the highway and a pathway that runs through Tennessee RiverPark, a popular park at a bend in the Tennessee River northeast of downtown Chattanooga. It's in a light industrial area that includes a Coca-Cola bottling plant and Binswanger Glass.
The two entrances to the fenced facility have unmanned gates and concrete barriers that require approaching cars to slow down to drive around them.
Marilyn Hutcheson, who works at Binswanger Glass just across the street, told the Associated Press she heard a barrage of gunfire around 11 a.m.
"I couldn't even begin to tell you how many," she told the AP. "It was rapid fire, like pow pow pow pow pow, so quickly. The next thing I knew, there were police cars coming from every direction."
She ran inside, where she remained locked down with other employees and a customer. The gunfire continued with occasional bursts she estimated for 20 minutes.
"We're apprehensive," Hutcheson said. "Not knowing what transpired, if it was a grievance or terroristic related, we just don't know."
The Armed Forces Career Center on Lee Highway sits in a short strip between a Cricket Wireless and an Italian restaurant with no apparent additional security.
Near the other shooting location on Lee Highway, Nicholas Donohue heard a blast of gunshots while working at Desktop Solutions. But he had music playing and wasn't quite sure what the noise had been. He turned off the music and seconds later, a second blast thundered. He took shelter in a back room.
"Even though it knew it was most likely gunfire I heard, you also don't want to believe it's happening in the moment," he told the Associated Press. "Since I didn't see anything, I couldn't be sure."
By the time he emerged, police were cordoning off the area.
-- The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Original Story:
U.S. Navy officials are confirming that there was a shooting Thursday morning at the Naval Recruiting Building on Amnicola Highway in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
City officials have said a Chattanooga police officer was shot in the area, but the Navy is not confirming that he was shot at the recruiting building.
Officials from Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke’s office said there could be multiple victims and a search is ongoing for the shooter or shooters, as the number of shooters has not been determined.
Military.com will provide updates throughout the day as they are announced.