Chattanooga shooting investigation: Marine shielded his daughter from terrorist's rampage

Lance Cpl. Christopher Gilliam, the most junior Marine in the office at the time, was the first to spot the shooter through the front glass window and yelled to immediately instructed the others to run. Gunnery Sgt. Camden Meyer was seated in his office when a bullet came through the his wall and hit the ceiling. When he stood up and saw Abdulazeez  the shooter, Meyer told the investigating officer, that he immediately "grabbed my daughter and yelled at the same time for [Sgt. Winfield] Thompson to ‘get down.’ " Thompson, when he noticed the sergeant, who was also in Meyer's his office when the attack began, was ready was about to run, Meyer's statement reads. Doing so could have made him an easy target.  

Abdulazeez began to fire quickly then, 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, said he heard Abdulazeez pause that break in fire, according to the report. He yelled to Thompson that they needed run. Meyer He 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. Theyose junior enlisted Marines were able to rounded up all of the children the group and they all hunkered down in a small building nearby a couple hundred yards away from the attacker.

Marines at Recruiting Substation Chattanooga told the investigating officer that July 16 began like most other workdays, according to the report. While the Marines' names were redacted from the report, Marine Corps Times was able to confirm who gave each account. The two prospective recruits — Marines refer to them as "poolees" — in the office at the time of the shooting have now officially enlisted in the Marine Corps and are currently attending boot camp, said Maj. Garron Garn, a spokesman for Marine Corps Recruiting Command. Since they're still in training, the recruits weren't available for interviews. They arrived at work Marines first began arriving at recruiting office at about 7:30 a.m. Meyer talked with his Marines about their plans for the day and then left the office to get the plan of the day before leaving to go deal with a car repair.

He returned just after 9 a.m. with his daughter, whom he agreed to watch. He was watching for a few couple of hours that day while his wife ran some errands, he told the investigator. A few minutes later, another Marine recruiter left to get a haircut. Around the same time, the two poolees arrived. They were scheduled to take a their initial strength test before shipping out ahead of their departure to boot camp.

At 10:30 a.m., Sgt. DeMonte Cheeley, who’d only been on recruiting duty for less than two months about a month and a half, had just learned his next had just found out that a woman with whom he had an appointment was running late and. She wouldn’t arrive at the office until 11 a.m. At So at about 10:30, he joined Gilliam, the lance corporal who first spotted Abdulazeez, was on temporary orders to the recruiting only temporarily assigned to the substation and sat — on a the 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 two were talking to the poolees about joining the Marine Corps when Abdulazeez prepared to fire his first shot into the recruiting office about 10 minutes later. Gilliam, who was sitting to Cheeley’s right, spotted the silver Ford Mustang out of the corner of his eye. "The only thing I can remember seeing was two arms holding a weapon," Gilliam the lance corporal told the investigating officer. The gunman was a mere five just 5 feet away, perched in his convertible from the front of the building. Inside, the Marines were only three feet from the window, leaving only about 8 feet between them and the shooter. 

"Run!" Gilliam yelled as the first of dozens of rounds were fired into the recruiting office. He jumped over a cubicle and toward the back door. Once Gilliam exited, reached it and unlocked it, he headed down a hill and into a warehouse, where he called the police. 

Cheeley and the poolees followed him also sprinted toward the back door after the first shot. When they reached the back door, Cheeley told the investigating officer, said he looked back to the front of the office and saw a could see the barrel of the gun barrel. Once outside, he noticed blood running down his leg, but didn’t realize until later that one of the bullets had ripped gone right through his thigh. 

In Back in Meyer's office, Thompson said, he hit the deck when the shots broke out. He looked around in shock and then locked eyes with Meyer, who was also on the ground shielding his daughter as Abdulazeez unleashed rapid gunfire. That was when Meyer told Thompson to stay put until they heard a break in fire. 

Once several When several seconds passed without a shot, Meyer fire, the gunny 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 said, proceeding to a hill, with Meyer to his left while carrying the little girl over his right shoulder. 

Outside, Once they were out, Meyer said he accounted for all of his Marines and then headed to the strip mall's before heading to the north side to check whether end of the building and looked out from behind the offices to make sure Abdulazeez the attacker was gone. Cheeley, who was behind a dumpster in the back of the building, said he saw the gunman shooter drive away.

Meyer then went back ran into the office to make sure no one was inside, passing through the bullet-riddled front doors. The police arrived soon after.

"I called my [wife] and told her to come get [our daughter] now," Meyer told the investigating officer said. 

An ambulance was called Once the Marines began assessing any injuries the others had, they decided to call an ambulance for Cheeley, who said at first he thought the wound was from broken glass — not a bullet but there was a hole in his leg that was bleeding. Someone told Meyer to have the Marines change out of their uniforms and head home. He Meyer also told the poolees to go home. 

When FBI agents arrived around began arriving at about noon, and Meyer was the first from the recruiting office to give them a statement. By that point, Abdulazeez the attacker had been shot and killed by law enforcement responding to the attack on the Navy reserve center. His victims included Wyatt, who had instructed his men to clear the playground, The five troops he killed by Abdulazeez there were Gunnery Sgt. Thomas Sullivan, Staff Sgt. David Wyatt, Sgt. Carson Holmquist and Lance Cpl. Squire K. Wells. Navy Logistics Specialist 2nd Class Randall Smith succumbed to his wounds just over a day later.

The Marines inside the recruiting office credit their survival response that day to their a mix of combat training and common sense. All recruiters attend annual anti-terrorism, force protection training, which according to spokesman Garn said can be administered via lectures or through online courses. It covers a variety of force protection topics, including case studies, best practices and active-shooter response scenarios, he added.

None But of that was helpful that morning in Chattanooga, according to the Marines. "We all believe that the [anti-terrorism, force protection] training did not help us in this situation," Meyer wrote in an email to Marine officials after the attack. "Our Marine training and common sense is what helped us evade and escape."

As Marines face new threats in a global environment, stories of heroism like that displayed in Chattanooga have included a lot of talk about how to recognize such bravery yield combat valor awards. In September, Air Force Secretary Deborah James told Military Times that the Defense Department is exploring how the military’s award system should evolve to reflect valorous acts involving enemies who choose to fight American forces outside declared battlefields. "This really is a worldwide threat situation," James said. 

Airman 1st Class Spencer Stone had just been awarded the Purple Heart and the Airman’s Medal — the service’s highest noncombat award — for foiling a plot to commit mass murder taking down an alleged mass murderer on board a France-bound train while vacationing in Europe. Authorities said the alleged gunman in that case was motivated by radical Islam, prompting calls by some to award Stone with a Silver Star, which is currently reserved for actions in designated war zones. 

The Defense Department's medals review is expected to conclude soon. It remains to be seen how that may affect any awards for the bravery displayed in Chattanooga A decision on whether troops could earn combat valor awards off the traditional battlefield are expected soon, when the Defense Department wraps up a years-long review of the military’s medal system. But the fact that the Marine Corps and Navy have already preemptively nominated the Chattanooga shooting victims for Purple Hearts indicates at least that some see a tie between that attack and international terrorism. While Marine and Navy officials say that investigation on whether the shootings are labeled an act of terror is ongoing, Vice President Joe Biden, for one, called Abdulazeez's actions the work of a "perverted jihadist." during an Aug. 15 ceremony in Chattanooga honoring the fallen.