Family spokesman: Depression may have led to Tenn. killings
byJay Reeves And Michael Biesecker
Sophia Ensley, right, and Barbie Branum embrace in front of a makeshift memorial at the Navy Operational Support Center and Marine Corps Reserve Center, Saturday, July 18, 2015, for the victims of the July 16 shootings in Chattanooga, Tenn. The U.S. Navy says a sailor who was shot in the attack on a military facility in Chattanooga has died, raising the death toll to five people. (Doug Strickland/Chattanooga Times Free Press via AP)
A family representative says the Kuwait-born man who shot and killed five service members in Tennessee was first treated by a child psychiatrist for depression when he was 12 or 13 years old.
The representative, who spoke Sunday on condition of anonymity to avoid unwanted publicity, said 24-year-old Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez also fought drug and alcohol abuse, spending time in Jordan last year to help clean himself up.
The representative said relatives of Abdulazeez believe those personal struggles are at the heart of last week's killings at a pair of military sites in Chattanooga.
Abdulazeez had spent several months in Jordan last year. Counterterrorism investigators continue to interview Abdulazeez's acquaintances and delve into his visit to Jordan, looking for clues to whom or what might have influenced him and set off the bloodshed.
Two women mourn at a makeshift memorial near the Armed Forces Career Center, Saturday, July 18, 2015, for the victims of the July 16 shootings in Chattanooga, Tenn. The U.S. Navy says a sailor who was shot in the attack on a military facility in Chattanooga has died, raising the death toll to five people. (Doug Strickland/Chattanooga Times Free Press via AP)
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Family spokesman: Depression may have led to Tenn. killings (2015, July 20)
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