Soldiers Named

From the BBC:

"Chattanooga attack: Marines name victims in shootings"

 

The four US Marines shot dead by a gunman in Tennessee on Thursday have been named by officials.  They were identified as Gunnery Sgt Thomas Sullivan, Staff Sgt David Wyatt, Sgt Carson Holmquist and Lance Cpl Squire "Skip" Wells.  The gunman was shot dead by police after attacking two military buildings in Chattanooga. He was named by the FBI as Mohammad Youssuf Abdulazeez, 24.  The attack is being investigated as "an act of terrorism". 

 

 The US Marines released the names of the victims on Friday and gave brief summaries of their service.  Gunnery Sgt Sullivan was deployed twice during the Iraq war and received two Purple Hearts. Staff Sgt Wyatt was deployed in both Iraq and Afghanistan, while Sgt Holmquist served in Afghanistan. Lance Cpl Wells, who was in his early 20s, enlisted in 2014 and reports said he had not yet served overseas.  A police officer and a marine corps recruiter were also wounded, along with a female sailor who remains in a serious condition in hospital.

 

The incident began at 10:45 local time (14:45 GMT) on Thursday, when the suspect pulled up to a military recruiting centre in a rented convertible Ford Mustang and opened fire on the office. Army spokeswoman Kelli Bland said four US Armed Forces recruiters were in the building at the time of the shooting, but no-one was injured. The gunman then left the recruitment centre and drove some six miles (10km) to a naval reserve training centre, officials said. There he fatally shot the four marines and wounded the sailor before being shot and killed himself in a fire fight with police. "He did have at least two long guns, which would be considered rifles or shotguns. And he did have one handgun that we're aware of," FBI special agent Ed Reinhold told reporters on Friday. He said "some of the weapons were purchased legally and some may not have been".  So far there is "no indication that he was directed or inspired by anyone other than himself," Mr Reinhold added, but said investigators were looking at possible links to jihadist groups overseas. As dawn broke over Chattanooga, the serried ranks of television satellite trucks, police cars and FBI vehicles were still in evidence outside the recruitment centre on Lee Highway - scene of the first shooting on Thursday. Floral tributes lay on the ground, as the Tennessee governor blinked into television lights and promised to do all he could to help the families of the victims.

 

 

^ These kinds of attacks are just a coward's way of trying to be something they never will be (a martyr.) Of course everyone they interview after the fact claims the person was the best person they had ever known, etc  What else are they going to say? Yeah we knew he was messed-up, but didn't do a thing to stop him. The gunman is dead. We need to remember the soldiers that were wounded and killed while they were simply going about doing their jobs. There's no excuse to these horrific murders. ^

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-33574888