Mohammed Youssef Abdulazeez Was An Amateur Mixed Martial Arts Fighter

Chattanooga Shooter Mohammad Youssef Abdulazeez’s DUI Arrest Video Released

Mohammed Youssef Abdulazeez, the 24-year-old behind the massacre of four U.S. Marines earlier today, was also enrolled in a local Mixed Martial Arts league: Chattanooga XFN.

After being placed in the back of the police car, Abdulazeez first asks if he can make a phone call and then asks if he can speak to a cop he knows. “Oh Lord, don’t start dropping police names at this point, man,” the arresting officer says.

He had a 1-0 record, according to the local MMA website.

olice in Chattanooga have released an edited video showing the April DUI arrest of Mohammad Youssef Abdulazeez, who just three months later would kill five U.S. servicemen in an attack on a recruiting station and a Navy and Marine Reserve center in the city.

The footage, at least as edited, shows a largely civil encounter between Abdulazeez and two police officers after 2 a.m. on April 20.

One of the officers said Abdulazeez had been weaving, and conducts a field sobriety test.

The 24-year-old takes off his sandals and has trouble walking in a straight line. Then, when asked to say the alphabet from “E” through “W” he continues to the letter “Z.”

An officer asks about powder on or near Abdulazeez’s nose, which he says is from snorting caffeine pills.

“Caffeine pills up your nose, man? C’mon,” the officer says. “That can’t be good for you.”

Born in Kuwait, Abdulazeez was a U.S. citizen raised in the Chattanooga area. Relatives said that in recent years he had become depressed, abused drugs and alcohol and had debt problems.

Before the deadly July 16 attack he had written of suicide and martyrdom in his journal, ABC News had reported.

During his arrest, one of the police officers notes the smell of marijuana. Abdulazeez responds by saying that while he has smoked weed, he hadn’t that night. He adds, however, that he had been around others who did.

He also told the officer he would decline to take a blood test to check his sobriety.

“I don’t feel that I should be taken in right now,” he tells the officer. “I mean was my driving that…”

“It was,” the cop answers. “It was. It was that bad.”

Here is an undated boxing photo provided to the Times Free Press by a former coach:

Here’s an older, undated photo of Abdulazeez, provided by a former coach. Photo likely 5 years old or so pic.twitter.com/cCaFBRel85

— Shelly Bradbury (@ShellyBradbury) July 16, 2015