The gunman also died, police said. Authorities believe the gunman’s gunshot wound was inflicted on himself, Tulsa Police Department Deputy Chief Eric Dalgleish told a news conference.
Dispatchers received a call about an active shooter in the Natalie Medical Building, a doctor’s office building on the St. Paul’s Hospital campus. Francis, about 4:52 p.m. local time, said Dalgleish.
Officers responded to the scene at approximately 4:56 p.m. and contacted the victims and the suspect approximately five minutes later, Dalgleish said. Officers who arrived were able to hear gunfire inside the building, which led them to the second floor, according to the deputy chief.
“The scene is pretty much limited to one section of this floor, the second floor,” Dalgleish said. At least part of the scene was in an orthopedic office on that floor, according to Dalgleish.
No officers were injured, he added.
Investigators are interviewing witnesses who were in the building, Dalgleish said. A witness was found locked in a closet, he said.
Police said he was “approaching” to identify the suspect, who Dalgleish said had a rifle and a pistol with him. “It looks like the two guns, at one time or another, were fired,” the deputy chief said.
Tulsa Mayor GT Bynum expressed “deep gratitude” to first responders who “have not hesitated today to respond to this act of violence.”
“The men and women of the Tulsa Police Department did not hesitate,” the mayor said.
LIVE UPDATES: Tulsa Hospital campus shooting
A ‘catastrophic’ scene
Earlier on Wednesday, Richard Meulenberg, along with police, said authorities continued to evacuate “several floors” of the building, which included “hundreds of rooms and hundreds of people.”
“We’re treating this as a catastrophic scene right now,” Meulenberg said.
Police added that there was a reunion site for family and friends at Memorial High School west of LaFortune Park.
“There’s nothing this community can do for us but pray for the families and loved ones and the victims of this pointless act,” said Cliff Robertson, director general of the Saint Francis Health System. press conference.
President Joe Biden has been briefed on the shooting, a White House official said. The White House is closely monitoring the situation and has contacted state and local officials for support.
The Office of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is also assisting the scene, the ATF’s Dallas Field Division said on Twitter. “What happened in Tulsa today is an act of no sense of violence and hatred,” Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt wrote on Twitter. “I am grateful for the swift and courageous actions of the Tulsa Police Department and other lifeguards who went out of their way to contain a terrible situation.”
“I just knew it was a shootout”
Debra Proctor was in another building on the hospital campus for a doctor’s appointment when she heard police sirens sound.
When he went outside, the top officials were lined up everywhere, he told CNN. Proctor, who has been a registered nurse for more than four decades, said it was a “shocking” scene.
“Police were everywhere in the parking lot, up and down the surrounding blocks,” Proctor said. “They were still coming when I left.”
Kalen Davis, a lifelong resident of Tulsa, was waiting for traffic around 5 p.m. local time when he saw several police cars responding to the scene.
In a video he shared with CNN, you can see the authorities running towards a building with their weapons in their arms. Two officers are seen pulling long guns out of the trunk as more emergency vehicles rush to the scene.
“I just knew it was a shooting situation because I saw the police running with rifles,” Davis, 45, told CNN. “That’s when I got excited.”
CNN’s Amanda Jackson, Kaitlin Collins and Sharif Paget contributed to this report.