Four people were killed in a shooting Wednesday night in a medical building on a hospital campus in Tulsa, Oklahoma, police said. The gunman also died from a seemingly self-inflicted gunshot wound, according to police.
Captain Richard Meulenberg of the Tulsa Police Department told CNN that several people were injured – he said there were fewer than ten and no one had wounds that were considered life-threatening. He told The Associated Press that the medical complex was a “catastrophic scene.”
The identity of the victim and the perpetrator has not been released.
The motive of the perpetrator was not immediately known.
The shooting took place shortly before 5pm local time on campus at Saint Francis Hospital, Tulsa Deputy Chief of Police Eric Dalgleish told reporters. Officers responded to the scene within three minutes and came in contact with the gunman about five minutes later, he said.
“I was very pleased with what we know so far about our officer’s reaction,” Dalgleish remarked.
Tulsa Mayor GT Bynum said he wanted to “express the deep gratitude of our community for the wide range of first-aiders who did not hesitate.”
The time it took the police in Uvalde, Texas, to engage the gunman during last week’s deadly shooting at Robb Elementary School has become a central and controversial focus of this study. Officers waited more than an hour to break into the classroom where the gunman attacked.
There have been a dozen shootings in the United States this year in which four or more people have been killed, according to a database from the Associated Press / USA Today / Northeastern University.
Dalgleish described the gunman as a black man believed to be between 35 and 40 years old and said he was armed with a long pistol and a handgun.
Officers encountered the suspect on the second floor of the hospital’s Natalie building, Dalgleish said.
“The officers who arrived heard gunshots in the building and that was what led them to the second floor,” he said.
REUTERS
Both weapons appeared to have been fired, Dalgleish revealed.
He said it was not immediately clear if the gunman had attacked anyone in particular, or if the shooting was accidental.
Police later received information that the shooter may have left a bomb in a residence in Muskogee, Oklahoma, Muskogee police said Wednesday night. The home was searched by a bomb squad and no explosives were found, CBS Tulsa-affiliated KOTV reported, citing Muskogee Police.
Surrounding homes were either evacuated or residents were asked to shelter in place.
Muskogee is located about 50 miles southeast of Tulsa.
Tulsa police asked family and friends of the victims and survivors to go to Memorial High School, a block from the hospital campus, to wait to learn the fate of the people at the shooting scene, KOTV said.
Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt issued a statement calling the shooting a “sensible act of violence and hatred,” adding, “Sarah and I pray for the families of those who lost their lives and for those who were injured.”
The White House said President Biden had been briefed, adding that the situation was being closely monitored and that the White House had contacted state and local officials to offer support..
Jan Hodges, who works on the hospital’s campus, said she was in another building about 100 meters from the shooting scene.
She told KOTV: “I just knew something terrible was happening. I mean, police officers ran into a building with shields and rifles, and I thought, ‘I’ve seen this in the news several times in other areas.’ was almost like it was a repeat of something I had seen before.I really could not believe it was going on in my own neck of the woods and I’m sick because I know people who work in the Natalie building, and I I’m afraid of them and I do not know anything about their well-being at the moment. “
Hodges said she was detained for just under two hours.
Another employee wondered aloud, “What’s going on in the world these days?”
One witness remarked, “I mean, it’s a doctor’s office, just like you can’t go anywhere without anything happening. I’m just crazy.”
Kevin Forrestal, whose wife was in the building for a procedure, told CBS News: “As big as the complex is, the first thought is, ‘Is that where she is? Is it somewhere else?’ But luckily she was safe ‘.
