2 in military tried to kill Tenn. gunman, sources say
A Navy officer and a Marine fired their sidearms hoping to kill or subdue the gunman who murdered five service members last week in Chattanooga, Tenn., according to multiple military officials familiar with internal reporting on the tragedy.
It remains unclear whether either hit Mohammod Abdulazeez, who was shot and killed July 16 after he gunned down four Marines and a sailor at the Navy Operational Support Center. It also is unclear why the men were armed because it is against Defense Department policy for anyone other than military police or law enforcement to carry weapons on federal property.
A report distributed among senior Navy leaders during the shooting's aftermath said Lt. Cmdr. Timothy White, the support center's commanding officer, used his personal firearm to engage Abdulazeez, which the Navy Times confirmed with four separate sources. A Navy official also confirmed a Washington Post report indicating one of the slain Marines may have been carrying a 9mm Glock and possibly returned fire on the gunman.
The various law-enforcement agencies investigating the Chattanooga shooting declined to comment. A source close to the investigation said details of the rampage's last few minutes remain unclear, but no information has emerged to contradict the Navy's internal findings.
Authorities will not know whether White or the Marine hit Abdulazeez until an autopsy and ballistics assessment are performed. Several attempts to contact White were unsuccessful.
The shootings unfolded on the morning of July 16 when Abdulazeez pumped dozens of rounds into a strip mall recruiting station before driving across town to the Navy support center, the FBI said. No one was killed inside the recruiting station.
Two potential Air Force volunteers, scheduled to meet with a recruiter around the same time Abdulazeez began shooting, say they're lucky they overslept.
"I had just gotten to sleep and set an alarm that didn't go off," said Mason Hulsey of Chattanooga. "I woke up later and saw it plastered all over Facebook."
The recruiting center reopened Monday, and Hulsey and his friend Adam Huggins were there Tuesday with flags in hand.
Police responding to the first shooting passed the Navy support center en route, and some were diverted to the scene of the second attack, according to a source with knowledge of the investigation.
Killed in the attack were Marine Sgt. Carson Holmquist, 26, of Grantsburg, Wis.; Gunnery Sgt. Thomas Sullivan, 40, of Hampden, Mass.; Lance Cpl. Squire K. "Skip" Wells, 21, of Marietta, Ga.; and Staff Sgt. David Wyatt, 35, of Morganton, N.C. Navy Logistics Specialist 2nd Class Randall Smith, 26, of Paulding, Ohio, died July 18 from wounds sustained during the shooting.
"I figured if we can't protect our country how we originally intended to, while we're waiting for it we might as well protect those that can't defend themselves," Hulsey said.
Contributing: Michael Crowe, WBIR-TV, Knoxville, Tenn.