Chattanooga Domestic Terrorist Mohammad Youssef Abdulazeez – Radicalized and Activated….

Mohammad Youssef Abdulazeez stands with fighting coach Scott Schrader after winning silver at the North American Grappling Championships in this undated photo. Provided by Schrader (link)

Mohammod Youssof Abdulazeez, age 24, has been identified by the FBI as the gunman who fatally shot four Marines and wounded a police officer on Thursday in shootings at two military recruiting and training centers in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

NBC News reports that Abdulazeez is a naturalized U.S. citizen originally from Kuwait. He was born in 1990. He came to the United States in 1996 with his parents.

CBS News reports that he/his family, were from Phoenix, Arizona. The Associated Press says he lived in Hixson, Tennessee, which is a community in Chattanooga.

He was arrested on April 21, 2015 for driving under the influence in Hamilton County, Tennessee, according to the Chattanoogan.com.

Abdulazeez was not being watched by the FBI or on any terror watchlists prior to the shooting, CBS News reports.

New York Times – Mr. Abdulazeez was not on the government’s radar, but law enforcement officials said that his father had been under investigation several years ago for possible ties to a foreign terrorist organization. At one point, a law enforcement official said that the father was on a terrorist watch list and was questioned while on a trip abroad, but that he was eventually removed from the list.

Abdulazeez’s father, Youssuf Abdullazeez, was appointed as a “special policeman” for Chattanooga’s Department of Public Works in March 2005 (link)

Abdulazeez attended Red Bank High School in Tennessee. According to the Chattanooga Times Free Press, his high school yearbook quote was, “My name causes national security alerts. What does yours do?”

A woman who attended Red Bank High School with Abdulazeez said he was a quiet kid, but well-liked. “He was friendly, funny, kind,” said Kagan Wagner. “I never would have thought it would would be him.” She added that their whole family seemed normal. “They were your average Chattanooga family,” she said

Ryan Smith, who wrestled with Andulazeez at Red Bank High School, said he was a “swell guy.” “He was an unbelievable nice person,” Smith said. “He was honestly one of the funniest guys I’ve ever met.” Smith said that Abdulazeez was very religious, and that he would argue “back and forth” with the boys’ high school wrestling coach during fasting rituals. “His whole family was really religious,” Smith said. “His family, they all wore the drapes and stuff, all the women in his family wore the little hoods.” (link)

Abdulazeez graduated from the University of Tennessee-Chattanooga in 2012, according to posts on his mother’s Facebook page and a resume posted on Indeed.com. He graduated with a degree in electrical engineering. He worked from April 2009 to April 2010 as an intern with the Tennessee Valley Authority, a federally owned corporation that provides electricity to 9 million people in the southeast. He also had internships at Mohawk Industries and Global Trade Express. (link)

He also participated in Mixed Martial Arts – MMA:

According to The Daily Beast, Abdulazeez wrote had a blog with only two posts on it, both written on July 13, three days before the attack, and both about Islam.

In the first post, “A Prison Called Dunya,” The Daily Beast says he wrote:

I would imagine that any sane person would devote their time to mastering the information on the study guide and stay patient with their studies, only giving time for the other things around to keep themselves focused on passing the exam. They would do this because they know and have been told that they will be rewarded with pleasures that they have never seen.

The second post was called “Understanding Islam: The Story of the Three Blind Men.”