More victims in another gun spree in the United States: Several people were killed in a shootout at a hospital in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on Wednesday. “We can confirm that five people are dead, including the shooter,” the police said on Wednesday evening (local time). It was previously said that the suspect was “out of action”.
On Twitter, the police initially informed about an “active shooting”. Hours after the shooting, uniformed officers combed the building. At first it was also said that injured people were being cared for, without further information being given.
According to initial findings, the shooter shot himself, later confirmed by Tulsa Deputy Chief of Police Eric Dalgleish. The man had previously entered the building, which belongs to a hospital, with a rifle and a handgun.
Motive doctor?
According to police, officers were called to St. Francis Hospital in the afternoon about a gunman. There was initially no reliable information about the background to the crime. Tulsa Councilman Jayme Fowler said, “As far as I know, the shooter had a problem with a certain doctor and he couldn’t find that doctor.” That was the trigger for the violent behavior.
Councilman Fowler said the shooter took his own life. No information was initially given about the identity of the perpetrator.
Police officers are still searching the building where the crime took place. Aerial footage from a TV helicopter during the police operation showed first responders wheeling a person out of the hospital building on a stretcher.
Series of shootings in the USA
The United States is currently being shaken by a whole series of shootings. Just last Tuesday, an 18-year-old opened fire at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas. The gunman holed himself up in a classroom and killed 19 children and two teachers before being shot dead by the police himself. A few days earlier, a gunman opened fire in a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, killing ten people and injuring three others. According to investigators, the act was racially motivated – 11 of the 13 victims were black.
The Uvalde killing spree in particular has once again fueled the debate about tightening gun laws in the USA. US President Joe Biden – a Democrat – has spoken out in favor of it. For years, however, many Republicans have opposed stricter regulations, such as a ban on assault rifles. The US has long struggled with massive levels of gun violence. In 2020, gun injuries were the number one killer of children and adolescents in the United States, ahead of traffic accidents. (SDA/kes)