Sophia Ensley, right, cries as she and others look at the makeshift memorial at the entrance to the Naval Operational Support Center and Marine Reserve Center Saturday, July 18, 2015, in Chattanooga, Tenn.
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Federal investigators are reviewing a set of papers kept by Abdulazeez as they try to piece together why he opened fire Thursday at two military facilities in Chattanooga, killing four Marines and a sailor.
Lisa Camp holds a cross in the rain near the Armed Forces Career…
In a statement to the media, a representative for Adbulazeez’s family said the Kuwait-born 24-year-old was sent on the trip past year to visit family In Jordan in an effort to help him cope with crushing debt and suicidal thoughts, alongside drug and alcohol abuse.
The revelations come a day after Abdulazeez’s family said he was suffering from depression.
Abdulazeez apparently did not use a laptop but could have read jihadist propaganda on his smart phone, the sources close to the investigation and a second source told Reuters. “He could readily find that anywhere online”, a senior official briefed on the investigation told ABC News.
But there is no evidence so far that Mohammod Abdulazeez, 24 – whose family insists he was deeply troubled and mentally ill – was inspired by or directed by ISIS to carry out a bloody attack on USA military targets of the sort the Syria and Iraq-based terror group has publicly called for over the past year, the officials said.
Although he had a degree in electrical engineering, Abdulazeez was sacked in 2013 after just 10 days from a new job at the Perry Nuclear Generating Station outside Cleveland, Ohio, for failing a drug test.
Abdulazeez’s family reportedly had tried to seek treatment for his mental illness and to keep him away from a group of friends they considered a bad influence, but with little success. He then went to Jordan in 2014 to work for his uncle, and lived with his uncle and his grandparents there, he said. But FBI Special Agent Ed Reinhold told reporters at the most recent news conference about the case that agents were looking into all aspects of his life and had not yet turned up any connections to Islamic terrorist groups. “The person who committed this disgusting crime was not the son we knew and loved”.
Recently, Abdulazeez had begun working the night shift at a manufacturing plant and was taking medication to help with problems sleeping in the daytime, the representative said, and he also had a prescription for muscle relaxants because of a back problem.
ABC did not name the family contact, who said Abdulazeez abused sleeping pills, opioids, painkillers, marijuana and alcohol.
Relatives and friends also told investigators that there were major changes in the Chattanooga shooter’s behavior after his return from Jordan.
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He was arrested on April 20 of this year for driving under the influence of alcohol, an event that made him sink further into depression, as stated by friends.
