Randall Smith, a sailor wounded in the attack in Chattanooga on Thursday, died Saturday, becoming the fifth military member to be killed, the Washington Post reports. Four U.S. Marines were also killed in the attack and the FBI said gunman Mohammad Youssef Abdulazeez, 24, was killed in a exchange of gunfire with the police. In Chattanooga investigators sought to decipher the gunman’s motives and began to confront the uncomfortable question of whether counterterrorism agencies are reaching the practical limits of what they can do to detect homegrown plots. Investigators said Abdulazeez had not previously drawn the attention of authorities, save for a drunken-driving charge a few months ago. Abdulazeez's travels to the Middle East, his acquisition of several firearms and his recent online musings about the meaning of Islam were coming under fresh examination as hundreds of federal agents sought to reconstruct his movements and mind-set.
“At this time, we have no indication he was inspired by or directed by anyone other than himself,” said FBI agent Edward Reinhold. When the Islamic Society of Greater Chattanooga held a ribbon-cutting for its school and mosque complex in 2012, William Killian, the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Tennessee, was a featured speaker along with the mayor and chief of police, the Post reported in a separate story. FBI officials and local law enforcement have come to the mosque's open houses. The close relationship wasn't enough to stop Abdulazeez, who had attended the mosque irregularly and struggled with depression and drug use after college, according to friends and family.