(UPDATE 4:30 p.m.) A U.S. official says the gunman in the shootings in Tennessee has been identified as 24-year-old Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez.
He was believed to have been born in Kuwait, and it was unclear whether he was a U.S. or Kuwaiti citizen.
The official was speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the ongoing, sensitive investigation.
It was not immediately clear whether the gunman’s first name was spelled Muhammad or Mohammad.
He is from Hixson, Tennessee, which is just a few miles across the river from Chattanooga.
(UPDATE 3:30 p.m.) US attorney Bill Killian calls killings of 4 at military sites an `act of domestic terrorism.’
Earlier:
WASHINGTON (AP) _ A U.S. official says four Marines are dead after a shooting attack at two military facilities today in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
The official says the lone gunman involved in the attack was also killed.
According to the official, two others, a soldier and a police officer, were wounded.
The shootings happened at two military recruiting offices in Chattanooga, sending troops scrambling for safety.
A woman who says she witnessed the shooting in Chattanooga says she heard a barrage of gunfire near one of the shooting sites.
“It was rapid fire, like pow pow pow pow, so quickly. The next thing I knew there were police cars coming from every direction,” said Marilyn Hutcheson, who works at a Binswanger Glass.
Hutcheson says she ran inside, where she remains with other employees and a customer.
The gunfire continued with occasional bursts she estimated for 20 minutes.
“We’re apprehensive,” Hutcheson said. “Not knowing what transpired, if it was a grievance or terroristic related, we just don’t know.”
President Barack Obama has been briefed by his national security team on the shooting involving two military sites in Tennessee.
White House spokesman Eric Schultz says that the president will continue getting updates from his staff as needed.
Obama was in Oklahoma to speak about criminal justice reform at a federal prison at the time of the shooting.
He plans to return to Washington on Thursday afternoon.
