including police officers, journalists, musical artists and other public figures. the french prosecutor confirmed what was found. . translator: three knives were seized. in particular a knife covered with blood. in the vehicle, a quran was found as well with ref rnss to authentic belief. you know that a certain number of claims were made by the terrorist, including a posting at 8:22 p.m. on facebook with a 12-minute video claiming responsibility. reporter: the 25-year-old was known to police as a petty criminal convicted of terror recruitment in 2013. according to the prosecutor, he did serve time in prison but was also given early release. the prosecutor s office also say his phone was monitored, but there were no signs of an imminent attack. abballa operated a nighttime food delivery business in the same area as his victims. neighbors in this quiet town describe to cnn the night of attack. translator: we thought it was a war scene. we didn t think we were in magnanvil
park. they prayed for victims there but also this kid s from los angeles and they moved to oregon in 2013. according to a neighbor, he s not very friendly. that he sat alone in the dark and reporters caught up with the father last night. a shock at what happened today. i ve just been talking to the police and the fbi. we are not details i have right now is what you guys know already. obviously it s been a devastating day. devastating for me and my family. all i ask is please just respect our privacy. shocked is all i can say. now we have two news conferences later today with the hospital and the sheriff. we should learn more about the shooter at that time. back to you guys. all right. that s what we know so far. meanwhile heather childress is here helping us out with the news because there s a lot breaking especially what goes on in syria. and we re going to get straight to that because it is a breaking news alert. a major isis stronghold in syria
sarah, where have investigators gotten in trying the find answers for this grieving community? reporter: hi, josh. investigators are chasing down some 200 leads. they have also discovered writings that talk about suicide and martyrdom dating back as far as 2013. according to a family statement, abdulazeez suffered from depression. a family representative said drug and alcohol abuse was a problem and that the trip of last year to jordan april to november was actually to try to get his life back on track. and to get away from what his family describe as bad influences here in tennessee. a childhood friend terry jones talked about a video abdulazeez made years ago as a class project and said it depicts him walking down downtown chattanooga walking to the beat of the music. he is wearing replicas of bombs strapped to the chest and the shop explodes. the friend said at the time it
three at the scene, one at the shooter s home. plus, we ll have an update on that spectacular wildfire. look at that in california. we ll get to that. but i want to begin with our breaking news on the investigation of the chatanooga shootings. cnn s evan perez has more now. good evening to you, evan. what do you know about mohammod youssuf abdulazeez s job at the nuclear power plant? don, this job was a provisional job. it lasted about, for about ten days. he worked as an engineer if you recall. he had an engineering degree from the university of tennessee-chatanooga. according to first energy he worked at a nuclear power plant in perry, ohio, for about ten days, in 2013. according to the company, according to first energy, he was dismissed because he did not meet their minimum requirements. now, they re not saying what those minimum requirements were. associated press which first reported the story described it as failing a background check.
as if they re outsider, they will feel like outsiders and look for belonging elsewhere. our entire national security strategy for the last 13 years has only increased alien nation, only increased people feeling like they don t belong. and that is the caseworker at cage who dealt with mohammad emwazi and dealt with him for a number of years. he tried to go to kuwait unsuccessfully a number of times. he then tried to change his name and eventually managed to leave the country in late 2012 or early 2013. according to cage, security service came to his family s home and notified them that their son had traveled to syria. they believe that mi 5 s alleged