Chattanooga Shooting Cop on 'Long Road to Recovery'
Dennis Pedigo out of trauma hospital for treatment.
-- Chattanooga police officer Dennis Pedigo, who was wounded during last week’s shooting rampage at two military centers, left a trauma hospital Monday and is now receiving treatment in a local hospital, officials say.
The officer’s family “knows it will be a long road to recovery and they are thankful for the support of so many in our community and across the country,” Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke’s office told ABC News today.
The family of the 17-year veteran, a master patrolman, has set up a Go Fund Me page to aid in the officer’s recovery.
After Pedigo, 39, was hit by gunfire, his colleagues pulled him to safety "while continuing to return fire," police said.
"Dennis Pedigo is doing well, he is in good spirits, he and the family would like to thank the community for their thoughts and prayers," the family had said in a statement Friday, tweeted by the Chattanooga Police Department. "Our family’s thoughts and prayers are with the families of the Marines that lost their lives yesterday."
Four marines died in the shooting. A fifth victim, Navy logistics specialist Randall Smith, died from his injuries over the weekend.
ABC News’ Brian Ross reported Monday that there is no evidence so far that alleged shooter Mohammod Abdulazeez, 24 -- whose family described as deeply troubled and mentally ill -- was inspired by or directed by ISIS to allegedly carry out the attack on U.S. military targets of the sort the Syria and Iraq-based terror group has publicly called for over the past year, the officials said.
"I don't think that there is any evidence it was ISIL-inspired. He may have been seeking some religious guidance to conduct an act. He could readily find that anywhere online," a senior official briefed on the investigation told ABC News.
Authorities said Abdulazeez was likely killed on site by police responders.