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1st LD: FBI says whether Tennessee shooting suspect was radicalized remains elusive

Xinhua, July 23, 2015 Adjust font size:

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said on Wednesday that the deceased suspect of shootings at Tennessee military facilities last week acted on his own, but the agency could not determine at this point whether he was radicalized.

Speaking at a briefing, Ed Reinhold, FBI Special Agent in charge of the investigation said the investigation was still in its early stage and whether Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez, a 24-year- old naturalized U.S. citizen originally from Kuwait, was radicalized was still unknown.

In shooting spree at two Chattanooga military facilities in Tennessee on Thursday, Abdulazeez killed four U.S. Marines and fatally wounded a Navy sailor who later died on Saturday. Abdulazeez was shot dead during confrontation with the police.

According to local police, the two shooting incidents, which lasted for about 30 minutes, happened first at a military recruiting center and then the Naval Reserve Center about 10 kilometers apart.

The shooting incidents came at a time when the U.S. authorities were becoming increasingly concerned about threats posed by domestic sympathizers of the extremist group of the Islamic State.

Local media reported earlier that U.S. authorities had found evidence that Abdulazeez followed a radical American member of the extremist group Al-Qaeda on-line in 2013. However, Reinhold said on Wednesday that investigators still hadn't been able to determine whether he was radicalized.

Family members earlier told local media that Abdulazeez suffered from depression and was mentally ill. Endite