A deadly Tennessee shooting is being investigated by federal authorities as an act of domestic terrorism – and has similarities to an unrelated Seattle attack planned in 2011.
The Tennessee gunman unleashed a barrage of fire at a recruiting center and another U.S. military site a few miles apart in Chattanooga on Thursday, killing at least four Marines, officials said. The attacker was also killed.
In 2011, a SeaTac man plotted to carry out a similar attack on a Seattle military center with machine guns and grenades. He was captured after FBI investigators learned of his plot, recorded his conversations and arrested him.
Seattle attack planned in 2011
“Abu Khalid Abdul-Latif "said that ‘jihad’ in America should be a ‘physical jihad,’ and not just ‘media jihad,’ expressing his view that it was necessary to take action rather than just talk,” an FBI agent wrote in 2011. “Abdul-Latif referred to the 2009 Fort Hood massacre, when a single gunman killed 13 people ... (and) said that if one person could kill so many people, three attackers could kill many more.”
Abdul-Latif was charged with planning the Seattle attack, and the Military Entrance Processing Station in South Seattle was his intended target – picked as revenge for actions by U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan.
Prosecutors said the plot was thwarted in the 11th hour after another Muslim man approached by Abdul-Latif went to Seattle police, then acted as an informant.
“The FBI and SPD were about to disrupt that plot because of a tip that came from the public,” said an FBI spokeswoman, recalling the events of four years ago.
She said the FBI continues to monitor social media and work with the public. However, she said people reporting possible terrorist threats is even more crucial now than four years ago, especially when groups like ISIS are trying to recruit home-grown terrorists online.
“We know that there are these calls to attack Americans,” the spokeswoman said. “We know that there are some possible attractive targets here in Washington state, and so today's attack reminds us of that need for vigilance.”
Abdul-Latif pleaded guilty in 2013 and was sentenced in U.S. District Court to 18 years plus 10 years supervision after his release. In the hearing, the judge talked about YouTube videos that Abdul-Latif posted, proclaiming his opposition to U.S. military involvement in the Middle East.
Thursday incident in Chattanooga and the 2011 Seattle cases are not connected.
According to Army Lt. Col. Vylius M. Leskys, recruiting stations in the Seattle area are not changing their security strategies because of the Chattanooga attack.
“We're not barricading ourselves,” Leskys said. “We're still continuing to act as local ambassadors in our local communities, and it behooves us to do so, so the community is welcome to come into our centers.”
Vylius said recruiters are already trained in counter-terrorism and are on the lookout for potential threats. He said now they are being extra vigilant.
Witnesses describe barrage of gunfire during Chattanooga shooting
Authorities would not say how the gunman died. FBI agent Ed Reinhold said Mohammad Youssuf Abdulazeez, 24, had "numerous weapons" but would not give details.
>> Photos: Gunman opens fire in Chattanooga
The Marine Corps said four Marines were killed, all of them at the Navy-Marine training site, and a fifth Marine was wounded in the leg but not seriously hurt. Also, a police officer was shot in the ankle, Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke said.
The names of the dead have not been released.
Reinhold said authorities were looking into whether it was domestic or international terrorism or "a simple criminal act."
In Washington, President Barack Obama pledged a prompt and thorough investigation and said the White House had been in touch with the Pentagon to make sure military installations are being vigilant.
"It is a heartbreaking circumstance for these individuals who served our country with great valor to be killed in this fashion," he said.
Vice President Joe Biden likewise said: "Their families have already given a lot to the country, and now this."
The shootings began at the recruiting center on Old Lee Highway, where a shot rang out around 10:30 or 10:45 a.m., followed a few seconds later by more gunfire, said Sgt. 1st Class Robert Dodge, leader of Army recruiting at the center.
He and his comrades dropped to the ground and barricaded themselves in a safe place. Dodge estimated there were 30 to 50 shots fired. Doors and glass were damaged at the neighboring Air Force, Navy and Marine offices, he said.
Law enforcement officials told recruiters that the gunman stopped his car in front of the recruiting station, shot at the building and drove off, said Brian Lepley, a spokesman with the U.S. Army Recruiting Command in Fort Knox, Kentucky.
The recruiting center sits in a short shopping strip between a cellphone business and an Italian restaurant, with no apparent special security.
The gunman opened fire next at the Navy Operational Support Center and Marine Corps Reserve Center Chattanooga.
The center is in an industrial area that includes a Coca-Cola bottling plant. 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 across the street, said she heard a barrage of gunfire around 11 a.m.
"I couldn't even begin to tell you how many," she said. "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, and she and other employees and a customer waited it out with the doors locked. The gunfire continued with occasional bursts for what she estimated was 20 minutes. Bomb squads, SWAT teams and other local, state and federal authorities rushed to the scene.
"If it was a grievance or terroristic related, we just don't know," she said.
KIRO
