Chattanooga Shooter's Family Masked Internal Struggles

When Shaina Ramsey first learned that her childhood friend, Mohammad Abdulazeez, was the suspected gunman in a shooting rampage in their hometown she posted a message of disbelief on Facebook. Over the next couple days, about half the posts on Ramsey’s Facebook news feed expressed shock and disbelief that the boy she attended middle school and high school with — a boy described as “smart, nicer and more reserved than the other jocks” and someone who “all the girls” thought was cute — could have wreaked such havoc. Along with evaluating Abdulazeez’s online blog espousing devotion to the Muslim faith, and possible radicalization, life at his parent’s middle-class home in the suburb of Hixson has come under heavy scrutiny by investigators. Two days after the shooting, his family echoed his friends’ confusion in a statement, saying Abdulazeez was “not the son we knew and loved.” The family has also said that he suffered from depression and was treated by a psychiatrist from the age of 12.