FBI checking gunman’s phone, computer, trip

Possible link to ISIL sought in killings of 4 Marines, sailor

The FBI is examining Mohammod Youssuf Abdulazeez’s cellphone and computer to determine whether the 24- year- old who killed four Marines and a Navy petty officer in Tennessee on Thursday was involved with the Islamic State terrorist group, the chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security said Sunday.

Investigators are also looking into Abdulazeez’s recent trip to Jordan, the Chattanooga Times-Free Press reported Sunday. Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam called for a review of security at National Guard armories and other military installations.

“We don’t want to leave our folks out there as targets,” Haslam told NBC’s Meet the Press.

Since the shooting, governors of at least a half- dozen states have ordered National Guardsmen to be armed. Florida Gov. Rick Scott moved his state’s Guard recruiters in urban areas from storefronts to armories. Haslam’s office said he had directed Maj. Gen. Max Haston, Tennessee’s adjutant general, to review which Guard personnel are authorized to be armed while on duty and to “identify and arm additional Guardsmen where necessary.”

Appearing on ABC’s This Week, U. S. Rep. Michael McCaul, R- Texas, didn’t say whether his office believes Abdulazeez was directly involved with or influenced by the Islamic State, also known as ISIL or ISIS, but he said the group’s members from Syria “activate people in the United States,” targeting military instal- lations and police officers.

The FBI identified Abdulazeez as the shooter at a U. S. Navy Reserve Center in Chattanooga.

Abdulazeez’s family released a statement through lawyers Saturday night, saying he suffered from depression “for many years.”

They expressed their “deepest sympathies and condolences to the families of the honorable servicemembers and police officers who were victims of the shooting our son committed on Thursday in Chattanooga, Tennessee — our community, and one we have loved for over twenty- five years.”

“Our prayers go out to the victims’ families, friends and everyone who is affected by this tragedy,” the statement said.

Abdulazeez, a naturalized U. S. citizen from Kuwait, died in a shootout with police. He had earlier shot up an armed forces recruitment center. Hours earlier, he texted a link to an Islamic verse to a friend, Reuters reported. The message included the line “Whosoever shows enmity to a friend of Mine, then I have declared war against him.”

“Our prayers go out to the victims’ families, friends and everyone who is affected.” A statement by the shooter’s family

JOE RAEDLE, GETTY IMAGES Photos of four of the five shooting victims are part of a memorial Saturday in front of a recruiting center in Chattanooga, Tenn.

DOUG STRICKLAND, AP Two women mourn at a makeshift memorial near the Armed Forces Career Center on Saturday for the victims of the shootings Thursday in Chattanooga, Tenn.

AFP/ GETTY IMAGES Mohammod Youssuf Abdulazeez