Reports are surfacing that a Navy officer and a Marine returned fire at the gunman who killed five service members last week in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
According to the
Navy Times, multiple military officials with internal information about the tragedy say that Lt. Cmdr. Timothy White, the commanding officer at the Navy Operational Support Center, fired a personal firearm at Mohammed Abdulazeez during the attack.
The Washington Post also reported that one of the four Marines killed in the attack may have fired a 9mm Glock at the gunman.
According to
Fox News, law enforcement officials said they recovered a Glock, which had been fired, at the scene of the crime and acknowledged that it did not belong to either the shooter or the police.
It remains unclear as to whether the shots that killed Abdulazeez came from White, the Marine, or the local police, but Defense Department policy prohibits anyone but military police or law enforcement to carry weapons on federal property.
Investigators need to examine autopsy reports of the gunman and victims before they can have more certainty about who fired the shots. The autopsies have been completed and could be released later this week, according to Fox News.
In the wake of the attack, governors in Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Indiana and Florida have ordered National Guardsmen to be armed, and Florida Gov. Rick Scott has moved recruiters to armories, Fox News reported.
Gen. Mark Milley, President Barack Obama's nominee to lead the Army, said Tuesday the government "should seriously consider" allowing soldiers at recruiting stations to be armed on the job.
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