CRIME

Family spokesman: Years of mental problems, substance abuse dogged shooter who killed 5

Associated Press
Published | Updated

Rodney Gray, left, prays during a memorial service at River Park Saturday, July 18, 2015, in Chattanooga, Tenn., for the victims of the Tennessee shootings. Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez, of Hixson, Tenn., attacked two military facilities on Thursday, in a shooting rampage that killed four Marines and one U.S. Navy sailor. (AP Photo/Mark Zaleski) (The Associated Press)

Sophia Ensley, left, comforts Barbie Branum by a makeshift memorial at the entrance to the Naval Operational Support Center and Marine Reserve Center Saturday, July 18, 2015, in Chattanooga, Tenn. The U.S. Navy says a sailor who was shot in the attack on a military facility in Chattanooga has died, raising the death toll to five people. (AP Photo/Mark Zaleski) (The Associated Press)

Sophia Ensley, right, cries as she and others look at the makeshift memorial at the entrance to the Naval Operational Support Center and Marine Reserve Center Saturday, July 18, 2015, in Chattanooga, Tenn. The U.S. Navy says a sailor who was shot in the attack on a military facility in Chattanooga has died, raising the death toll to five people. (AP Photo/Mark Zaleski) (The Associated Press)

A family spokesman says a Kuwaiti-born man who shot and killed five service members in Tennessee suffered mental health problems since his early teen years and also fought drug and alcohol abuse.

A representative of the family of 24-year-old Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez says relatives believe those struggles are at the heart of last week's killings at a pair of military sites in Chattanooga.

The person spoke Sunday on condition of anonymity to avoid unwanted publicity.

Authorities and friends say they've seen no evidence that Abdulazeez was a Muslim radical, and the spokesman says the man's relatives didn't, either.

The representative says Abdulazeez spent months in Jordan last year, but only to help him get away from substance abuse and a group of friends who relatives considered a bad influence.