Four people were killed in a shooting Wednesday night in a medical building on a Tulsa hospital campus in Oklahoma, police said. The gunman was also killed in an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, according to police.
Tulsa Police Department Captain Richard Meulenberg told CNN many people were injured; he said there were fewer than ten and no one had injuries that were considered life-threatening. He told The Associated Press that the medical complex was a “catastrophic scene”.
The identities of the victims and the gunman have not been revealed.
The motive for the shooter was not immediately known.
The shooting took place just before 5 p.m., local time, on the Saint Francis Hospital campus, Tulsa Police Chief of Staff Eric Dalgleish told reporters. Officers responded to the scene within three minutes and contacted the gunman about five minutes later, he said.
“I was very pleased with what we know so far about the response from our officers,” Dalgleish noted.
Tulsa Mayor GT Bynum said he wanted to “express our community’s deep gratitude for the wide range of first-timers who did not hesitate.”
The amount of time it took police in Uvalde, Texas, to engage the gunman during last week’s deadly shooting at Robb Elementary School has become a key and controversial focus of this investigation. Officers waited more than an hour to enter 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 an Associated Press / USA Today / Northeastern University database.
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 found the suspect on the second floor of the Natalie building in the hospital, Dalgleish said.
“The officers who did arrive were listening to shots fired at the building, and that’s what led them to the second floor,” he said.
Emergency personnel work at the site of a shooting at the Warren Clinic in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on June 1, 2022. REUTERS
The two weapons appeared to have been fired, Dalgleish revealed.
He said it was not immediately clear if the gunman had targeted anyone in particular or if the shooting was random.
Police later received information that the shooter may have dropped a bomb on a Muskogee residence in Oklahoma, Muskogee police said Wednesday night. The house was searched by a bomb squad and no explosives were found, CBS Tulsa affiliate KOTV reported, citing Muskogee police.
Houses in the vicinity were evacuated or residents were asked to take refuge in their place.
Muskogee is located about 50 miles southeast of Tulsa.
Tulsa police asked relatives and friends of the victims and survivors to go to Memorial High School, one block from the hospital campus, to wait for the fate of the people at the scene of the shooting. said KOTV.
Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt issued a statement calling the shooting a “senseless act of violence and hatred,” adding: “Sarah and I are praying for the families of those who lost their lives. life and the wounded “.
The White House said President Biden had been informed, adding that the situation was being closely monitored and that the White House had contacted state and local officials to provide support.
Jan Hodges, who works on the hospital’s campus, said he was in another building about 100 meters from the scene of the shooting.
She told KOTV: “I just knew something horrible was going on. I mean, the police officers ran to a building with shields and rifles and I thought, ‘I’ve seen this on the news several times in other areas.’ “It was almost like a repeat of something I’d seen before. I couldn’t believe it was happening in my own woods and I’m sick because I know people who work in the Natalie building and me. and I don’t know anything about his well-being right now. “
Hodges said it was closed for just under two hours.
Another employee asked out loud, “What’s going on with the world these days?”
A witness observed: “I mean, it’s a medical office, like now, you can’t go anywhere without something happening. I’m crazy.”
Kevin Forrestal, whose wife was in the building for a proceeding, told CBS News: “No matter how big this complex is, the first thought is, ‘Is this where she is?’ Is it somewhere else? But fortunately, she was safe. ”