By Dan Calabrese ——Bio and Archives--July 16, 2015
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Here's what we know so far. The murderer, who was also killed in the shootout, was 24 years old and is thought to have been born in Kuwait, although he is listed as from Hixson, Tennessee. He was not on an terrorist watch lists as far as anyone knows so far.
In case you're not up to speed on the details of what happenedThe gunman first shot up a recruiting center before driving to the Navy Operational Support Center and Marine Corps Reserve Center and killing four Marines before he was shot, authorities said. Sources told Fox News police chased the gunman from the recruiting center to the Center, where the killings took place. “We are treating this as an act of domestic terrorism,” said Bill Killian, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Tennessee. The names of the Marines who were reportedly shot were not immediately released pending notification of their families. The Navy Operational Support Center and Marine Corps Reserve Center lies along a bend in the Tennessee River, northeast of downtown Chattanooga. Despite Killian's statement, an FBI Special Agent Ed Reinhold told reporters that it may have been a criminal act. The gunman was killed, but authorities did not comment on his identity, motivation or the circumstances of his death. Authorities said the gunman did not work at either military facility. Reinhold said all the dead were killed at the Navy Operational Support Center and Marine Corps Reserve Center Chattanooga. It sits between Amnicola Highway and a pathway that runs through Tennessee RiverPark, a popular park at a bend in the Tennessee River northeast of downtown Chattanooga. It's in a light industrial area that includes a Coca-Cola bottling plant and Binswanger Glass.I'm sure we'll learn more in the days, and maybe even hours, to come about who he was, what his associations were and maybe what type of radical ideas he was into. The fate of these four Marines, after serving in Iraq and representing our country so honorably, is just beyond imagination. We are certainly praying for their families. Maybe it's too soon to ask this, but is it inevitable that the media will try to minimize the Islamic connection here? Or will they do their jobs for once? I'm not optimistic.
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