(Tulsa) At least four people lost their lives on Wednesday when a person opened fire at a hospital site in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in the southern United States. The killer allegedly took his own life.
Posted at 7:32 p.m.
Updated at 9:04 p.m.
“We can confirm that four people are dead, including the shooter” in a shooting at the site of St Francis Hospital, city police announced on Twitter. In the evening, the toll rose to five dead, Deputy Chief of Police Jonathan Brooks said at a press conference.
Police Captain Richard Meulenberg said several people were injured and the medical complex was a “catastrophic scene”.
“Police are currently checking every room in the building to rule out any threats,” police said early in the evening.
Although the identity of the killer has not been confirmed at this time, he is a man of about 35 to 40 years old, said Mr Brooks. The suspect had two firearms during the shooting. “The shooter is dead. We believe he committed suicide,” the deputy police chief added.
Residents “in shock”
” I am in shock. I didn’t expect it to happen this close to my home in Tulsa,” he told The Press Megan Lewis, who lives within walking distance of the hospital.
She was waiting at the bus stop to go to the grocery store, when about fifteen police cars zoomed past her. “I thought maybe it was a bank robbery up the street where I live,” she said.
It was while reading the news that she learned that an active shooter was at Saint Francis Hospital. “I went to this doctor two months ago. This hospital was one of the safest places in the world. I guess that’s not the case anymore,” she blurts out.
A medical center affected
St Francis Hospital closed its campus on Wednesday afternoon due to the drama. The Natalie Building, where the shooting took place, houses an outpatient surgery center and a breast health center.
Aerial footage from a television helicopter appeared to show first responders moving a person on a stretcher away from the building.
Dozens of police cars were also seen outside the hospital complex, and authorities closed traffic as the investigation continued.
A family regrouping center to find their loved ones has been set up in a nearby college.
US President Joe Biden has been kept informed of the shooting, announced the White House, which says it is monitoring the situation closely and offering local authorities the assistance they need.
A week after Uvalde
The shooting comes eight days after an 18-year-old gunman armed with an automatic rifle killed 19 children and two teachers at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, in one of the deadliest school shootings in history. the United States.
The recent Memorial Day weekend was marked by multiple mass shootings across the country, even though single-death incidents accounted for most gun deaths.
In the United States, shootings in public places are a recurring scourge that successive governments have so far been powerless to stem.
With the Associated Press and Agence France-Presse