FBI looks for signs of Tennessee shooter's radicalization

Neighbors describe Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez as a friendly young man. Karen Jones remembered having him over for dinner and watching him dribble a soccer ball in his front yard a few days ago.

But on Thursday, Abdulazeez murdered four U.S. Marines.

Counterterrorism investigators are trying to learn how the 24 year-old Tennessee resident went from a typical suburban life to his Thursday shooting rampage at two military sites. Experts say killers like Abdulazeez can keep a low profile while experiencing a radicalization process.

“It’s a blend of living in two worlds,” said Jeffrey Simon, author of Lone Wolf Terrorism: Understanding the Growing Threat. “They seem to be living normal, happy lives … on the other hand you are working on your inner issues.”

Abdulazeez graduated from Red Bank High School in Chattanooga, Tenn. He was a popular student and a member of the school’s wrestling team. He went on to earn an engineering degree from the University of Tennessee and even worked as an intern for the Tennessee Valley Authority.

“He was very outgoing,” said Hussnain Javid, who went to high school and college with Abdulazeez. “Everyone knew him.”

Javid mentioned he had seen Abdulazeez at the Islamic Society of Greater Chattanooga, but that was about a year ago.

Before Thursday, Abdulazeez worked at Superior Essex Inc., designing wire and cable product. He lived in a two-story house in a suburban neighborhood. One neighbor said Abdulazeez gave him a drive home one night after he was caught in a snowstorm. He used to play with the neighborhood children. People liked him.

“Sometimes blending into society could be masking the inner kind of ambiguity you have about your way of life,” Simon said. Occasionally, killers might have an extreme change in personality that signals they are ready to commit an act of violence. Someone might go from being nervous to calm, angry to confident.

By all accounts, Abdulazeez did not show definite signs of danger, but there are a few indications he might have been radicalized. Born in Kuwait during the 1990 Iraq invasion, Abdulazeez was of Jordanian descent. He traveled to Kuwait and Jordan in the spring of 2010. This April, he was arrested for drunken driving. His mugshot showed him with a bushy beard. Neighbors said he was clean-shaven for years.

Sometimes, Simon said, officials are able to find lone-wolf killers, as investigators say Abdulazeez was, by monitoring their internet activity. He expects Abdulazeez visited ISIS media sites or extremist chat rooms, since his attack targeted military facilities.

Officials are going through Abdulazeez’s computer, looking for indications of radicalization. FBI agent Ed Reinhod initially said investigators had “no idea” what motivated the shooter.

But Simon suggested the most obvious explanation likely is the right one.

“I would definitely put him in the category of religiously motivated lone-wolf terrorist,” he said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.