Five US soldiers shot at Georgia base, suspect a fellow soldier, official says
The man suspected of shooting and wounding five US soldiers on Wednesday at the Fort Stewart base in the state of Georgia is also a US soldier, a US official told Reuters.
The US Army identified the suspected gunman as 28-year-old soldier Quornelius Radford and said it was unsure why he opened fire at five fellow soldiers, who were in stable condition.
Brigadier General John Lubas, the commander of the 3rd Infantry Division, told reporters at Fort Stewart, in Georgia, that Radford appeared to use a personal handgun at his workplace and described the wounded soldiers as Radford’s co-workers.
The suspected gunman is in custody.
The soldiers were treated on site and then transported to Winn Army Community Hospital for further treatment, Fort Stewart said in a Facebook post. Authorities did not immediately provide further details on the condition of the victims.
“There is no active threat to the community,” the post said.
Law enforcement responded to reports of a shooting in the 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team area at 10.56am ET (2.56pm GMT), and the base was locked down shortly after 11.04am. The suspect was arrested at 11.35am, Fort Stewart said.
Governor Brian Kemp wrote on X that he and his family were “saddened by today’s tragedy” at the base.
“We are keeping the victims, their families, and all those who answer the call to serve in our hearts and prayers, and we ask that Georgians everywhere do the same,” he added.
President Donald Trump has been briefed on the shooting and is monitoring the situation, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on X.
Mass shootings are relatively common in the US, where guns are widely available, and military bases, which are among the highest-security places in the country, have not been spared.
The deadliest was at the Fort Hood Army base in 2009, when a major fatally shot unarmed soldiers in a medical building with a laser-sighted handgun, killing 13 people and injuring more than 30. Less than five years later, a soldier at the same Texas base fatally shot three service members and injured 16 others before killing himself.
In 2013, an employee of a government defence contractor killed 12 people at Washington’s Navy Yard. In 2019, a Saudi Air Force lieutenant shot and killed three people and wounded eight others at a US Navy base in Pensacola, Florida.
Fort Stewart is located in Hinesville, about 225 miles (362 km) southeast of Atlanta and 40 miles (64 km) southwest of Savannah. Nearly 9,000 people live at the base, according to the 2020 Census.
The base supports approximately 15,000 active-duty Army military personnel, as well as thousands of military retirees, family members, and others, according to its website.