Chattanooga shooting investigation: Marine shielded his daughter from terrorist's rampage
It was 60 seconds of sheer horror. These recruiters' incredible untold story
By Gina Harkins, Staff writer
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When the Chattanooga recruiting center came under attack this summer, the first of two targets in a Tennessee man's murderous and still unexplained rampage, a Marine inside shielded his young daughter from the gunfire and potentially saved a colleague's life by ordering him not to run, Marine Corps Times has learned.
Gunnery Sgt. Camden Meyer's actions on July 16 are among several revelations gleaned from a Marine Corps investigation into what transpired when Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez opened fire on the Chattanooga recruiting center before killing five service members at a Navy facility across town. The investigating officer's report, released by Marine Corps Recruiting Command via the Freedom of Information Act, also discloses that two potential recruits — Marines call them poolees — were among the gunman's first targets, and that Meyer, the recruiting station's noncommissioned officer in charge, subsequently discounted the adequacy of the training Marines receive for lone-wolf active-shooter scenarios.
Though heavily redacted, the 41-page document offers a detailed look at Marines' frantic escape from the recruiting center. The attack ignited a nationwide debate about how to protect military recruiters and other personnel assigned to small remote facilities, and whether such troops should be authorized to carry firearms. Federal authorities have not said whether Abdulazeez was inspired by radical Islam, but this debate, which has echoed through Congress, the Pentagon and several state governments, is driven by calls from the self-proclaimed Islamic State group to target American military personnel and their families on U.S. soil.
This is not the first time service members have been targeted at home, of course. Chattanooga only underscores the growing risk troops take simply by putting on their uniforms and going to work. But this nightmare exposes another threat, one just as sinister and worrisome. Every day, children, teenagers and young adults pass through thousands of military recruiting stations around the country. Today, as each of the military's services is reviewing its security measures at these facilities, officials say that preserving public safety is a top priority.
"Marine Corps Recruiting Command has more than 1,500 recruiting facilities across the country," said Maj. Garron Garn, a spokesman. "The preponderance of these offices are located within malls or co-located with other businesses. Because these offices are a meeting place for Marines and interested prospects, poolees and/or family members, our ongoing review of security measures take into account all parties who may be present in the office."
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One Marine was wounded in the recruiting center attack, but all seven people inside — the four Marines, two poolees and one little girl, according to a Marine official — escaped without serious injury. No one was armed, the report states.
Abdulazeez, 24, had an assault rifle, a shotgun and a pistol. From a rented Ford Mustang convertible, he fired between 30 and 45 rounds at the recruiting center's glass storefront before speeding off.
Lance Cpl. Christopher Gilliam, the most junior Marine in the office, was first to spot the shooter and yelled to the others to run. Meyer was seated in his office when a bullet came through the wall and hit the ceiling. When he stood up and saw Abdulazeez, Meyer told the investigating officer, he immediately “grabbed my daughter and yelled at the same time for [Sgt. Winfield] Thompson to ‘get down.’ ” Thompson, who was in Meyer's office when the attack began, was ready to run, Meyer's statement reads. Doing so could have made him an easy target.
Abdulazeez began to fire quickly, Meyer told the investigator. “I hit the floor," he said, "and immediately began to flatten my daughter’s body as flat as it could go and shielding it with my body from the fire. I yelled at [Thompson] to stay down until the break in fire. …I know the shooter would have to switch weapons, change clips or reload."
About 10 seconds later, Meyer's statement indicates, he heard Abdulazeez pause. He yelled to Thompson that they needed run. Meyer scooped up his daughter, and the three made it out the back door unharmed.
Similar heroism was displayed at the Naval Operational Support Center, the reserve facility some 10 miles away where Abdulazeez was shot dead after inflicting mass casualties. Staff Sgt. David Wyatt, one of four slain Marines, directed his junior troops to clear a nearby neighborhood park that was packed with children. They rounded up all of the children and hunkered down in a building nearby.
Excerpts from the August memorial for the five service members attacked and killed in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Speakers included Marine Maj. Michael Abrams, Lt. Cmdr. Tim White, Defense Secretary Ash Carter and Vice President Joe Biden. Video by Daniel Woolfolk/Staff
While the FBI continues to investigate the attacks, Marine Corps officials are considering how to recognize Marines' heroism that day. Additionally, Purple Heart packages have been prepared for the wounded recruiter and all five men who were killed.
Meyer and the other Marines declined to discuss Recruiting Command's investigation. A Marine spokesman said they are "looking to get back to work without distraction." The two prospective recruits have since enlisted and are currently attending boot camp. As such, another spokesman said, they were unavailable for interviews.
'Just like any other day'
Marines at Recruiting Substation Chattanooga told the investigating officer that July 16 began like most workdays, according to the report. They arrived at work about 7:30 a.m. Meyer talked with his Marines about their plans for the day and then left the office to deal with a car repair.
Sgt. DeMonte Cheeley was shot in the leg during the
Sgt. DeMonte Cheeley was shot in the leg during the attack. Marine officials have prepared a package nominating him for the Purple Heart.
(Photo: Marine Corps)
He returned just after 9 a.m. with his daughter, whom he agreed to watch for a few hours while his wife ran some errands, he told the investigator. Another Marine recruiter left to get a haircut. Around the same time, the two poolees arrived. They were scheduled to take a strength test before shipping out to boot camp.
Sgt. Winfield Thompson was in Meyer's office the gunman
At 10:30 a.m., Sgt. DeMonte Cheeley, who’d been on recruiting duty for less than two months, learned his next appointment was running late and wouldn’t arrive at the office until 11 a.m. Gilliam, the lance corporal who first spotted Abdulazeez, was on temporary orders to the recruiting substation and sat on a couch at the front of the office. Cheeley joined him, and the two were talking to the poolees about joining the service.
Ten minutes later, Abdulazeez pulled up to the storefront. “The only thing I can remember seeing was two arms holding a weapon,” Gilliam told the investigating officer. The gunman was a mere five feet away, perched in his convertible. Inside, the Marines were only three feet from the window.
“Run!” Gilliam yelled as the first rounds were fired into the office. He jumped over a cubicle and toward the back door. Once Gilliam exited, he headed down a hill and into a warehouse, where he called the police.
Cheeley and the poolees followed him. When they reached the back door, Cheeley told the investigating officer, he looked back to the front of the office and saw a gun barrel. Once outside, he noticed blood running down his leg, but didn’t realize until later that one of the bullets had ripped through his thigh.
In Meyer's office, Thompson hit the deck. He looked around in shock and then locked eyes with Meyer, who was on the ground shielding his daughter as Abdulazeez unleashed rapid gunfire.
Once several seconds passed without a shot, Meyer yelled at Thompson to run. “We got up, I grabbed my daughter in my arms and began to run out the back door,” Meyer told the investigator. They proceeded to a hill, with Meyer carrying the little girl over his right shoulder.
Everyone was out of the office within a minute, the report says.
http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/longform/military/2015/09/25/chattanooga-shooting-investigation-marine-recruiter-shielded-daughter-from-muhammad-youssef-abdulazeez-rampage/72586592/
