With two attacks having been committed at Fort Hood, Texas, it should have been no surprise to any military personnel that there was a chance other installations or offices might become targets. Still, several people in uniform expressed surprise when, on July 16, 2015, Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez fired on two military offices. Now, admittedly, one of the attacks at Fort Hood hadn’t been related to terrorism or any such related belief structure but still…
On that date in July 2015, Abdulazeez performed two shootings. He first drove by a recruiting station where he fired shots, reportedly wounding one Marine inside, and then he continued to a U.S. Navy Reserve center where he fired more shots. At that location he shot and killed four Marines, he shot a sailor, a Marine Corps recruiter and a police officer. The sailor later died in the hospital. It wasn’t until five months later that the FBI attributed the attack(s) to a terrorist related cause.
Perhaps one of the most glaring characteristics of Abdulazeez’s attack was the number of rounds fired. Reportedly, during his drive by shooting of the recruiting center, he fired approximately 30-45 rounds. At the Navy Reserve Center he fired another 50-60 more shots. While six dead is obviously six more than anyone should accept, six dead out of 100+ rounds fired could obviously have been a lot worse.
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The remainder of this article is part of the book "Active Killers and the Crimes They Perpetrated," available in print or ebook via Amazon.
Joshua Borelli
Joshua Borelli has been studying active shooter and mass attack events over the course of the past several years, commensurate with receiving training on response and recovery to natural disasters and civil disturbances. Joshua started to outline this series of articles in an attempt to identify commonalities and logistical needs patterns for response.
