A day after he gunned down four Marines in a brazen daytime attack in Tennessee, friends and former teachers describe 24-year-old Mohammod Youssuf Abdulazeez as a normal, all-American, small town high school athlete who also appeared sensitive to perceived slights because of his Muslim faith.
"He was just a typical American kid in high school," Brad Benefield, Abdulazeez's former teacher at Red Bank High School told ABC News. "He wasn't a loner. He definitely wasn't friends with the entire school, but he had his wrestling teammates, generally similar people, wise guys like he was... He was just a typical American kid in high school and I think that's what can take us back a bit."
Benefield said of Abdulazeez's April 2015 arrest for an alleged DUI, "that sounds like more like the kind of guy he was, a partying joker."
Former high school classmates, teachers and coaches all described Abdulazeez as a normal kind of kid, but he was apparently aware of some stereotypical harassment for being a Muslim.
He chose "My name causes national security alerts. What does yours do?" as his senior quote in his yearbook. In 2010, Abdulazeez's sister told a local newspaper about a few incidents of harassment when she was in school. Older photographs show Abdulaziz clean shaven or with a little scruff, but he apparently grew his beard longer beginning a few months ago.
Authorities say Abdulazeez, who was born in Kuwait, opened fire on two military-related installations in Chattanooga, Tenn., early Thursday afternoon. He killed four Marines and injured three other people, before he was killed, the FBI said.
The FBI said late Thursday they still have not determined a motive for the shooting and they have not found evidence Abdulazeez was connected to any international terror groups. Law enforcement officials told ABC News that Abdulazeez does not appear to have been on their radar as a potential terrorist.
His father was even named a special policeman for a Chattanooga's Department of Public Works in 2005.
Kagan Wagner, a childhood friend of Abudulazeez, said she was in class with him when the jetliners struck the World Trade Center towers on Sept. 11, 2001.
"I think in the days after that he got a little quieter and a little sadder, but I don't think it affected him in any deep profound way that's different than the way it affected the rest of us," she said.
Wagner, who said her husband is active duty military, remembered Abdulazeez as a "friendly, outgoing kid," but obviously something changed in him.
"Given the fact that he killed and injured Marines... it was just really hard and honestly I think it's going to take some time to connect what he did with who he was, because obviously who he was isn't who he is now," she said.
In 2009, Abdulazeez flirted with mixed martial arts fighting, winning a cage match at a Chattanooga fight night. His one-time mixed martial arts trainer, Scott Schrader, told ABC News he was stunned to learn Abdulazeez was the shooter.
"It's been kind of surreal," Schrader said. "I said, 'No, that's crazy because I trained that kid.' He was a great kid. I'm kind of in the position that I mourn for the kid that he was, but I have utter contempt for the man he became."
Abdulazeez would go on to graduate in 2012 from the University of Tennesee Chattanooga with a degree in engineering.
Abdulazeez recently worked at Superior Essex, described on its website as a "global leader in the design, manufacture and supply of wire and cable products." A spokesperson for the company said, "We were shocked and deeply saddened that a three month employee of our Company was the gunman of the tragic incident in Chattanooga" and said the company is cooperating fully with authorities.
Almir Dizdarevic, another former coach of Abdulazeez, said the young man "always smiled" and told him just a month ago that everything was alright.
"Smiling, laughing, talking to me, [saying] no problems," Dizdarevic told CNN. "It was absolutely nothing on him that would show me that he was upset about something."
The sad thing is that U.S. went to war with Iraq so that we free his former country from the Iraqis.
We believe that we should not overreact to this incident. Certainly he killed 4 innocent soldiers, but we cannot lose sight of the fact that it is impossible to stop all these attacks. There will be other sympathizers, there is no question about that. But these are very-very few, compared to the overwhelming majority of Muslims.
Obviously his heart was with the Muslim and Arab or Middle East people. No material belongings can compete with the possession of the heart and mind with the need for revenge. He traveled there and he saw the destruction and death and massacres and unimaginable human suffering that many years of U.S. and NATO and EU and Canadian involvement has brought to these countries.
Greed. Fear and /or Hate of Others. Humans. Life.