At least 5 dead, including gunman, after mass shooting at medical centre in Oklahoma

[Huat Zai]

 

TULSA, Oklahoma: At least five people were dead after a man armed with a rifle opened fire on Wednesday (Jun 1) inside a medical building in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in the latest of a series of mass shootings in the United States. 

Tulsa Police said on Twitter that five people were dead, including the gunman, in an "active shooter situation" at the Natalie Building on the St Francis Hospital campus. 

The gunman died apparently of a self-inflicted wound, Tulsa's deputy police chief Jonathan Brooks told reporters outside the hospital campus.

He said that police were trying to determine the man's identity, but said he was aged between 35 and 40.

Captain Richard Meulenberg told ABC News that Tulsa Police received a call about a man with a rifle on the second floor of a building on the medical campus and that "it turned into an active shooter situation".

By the time officers arrived on the scene, "they found a few people have been shot. A couple were dead at that point", Meulenberg said.

 

Emergency workers respond to a shooting at the Natalie Medical Building on the St Francis Hospital campus on Jun 1, 2022 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. (Photo: Ian Maule/Tulsa World via AP)

 

Tulsa police respond to a shooting at the Natalie Medical Building on Jun 1, 2022. in Tulsa, Oklahoma. (Photo: Ian Maule/Tulsa World via AP)

 

Brooks said officers arrived on the scene three minutes after receiving a call about the shooting and made contact with the victims and the suspect five minutes later. The gunman was armed with a rifle and a handgun.

"I also want to express our community's profound gratitude for a broad range of first responders who did not hesitate today to respond to this act of violence," Tulsa Mayor GT Bynum said.

The shooting occurred on the second floor of the campus's Natalie Building, which contains doctor's offices and an orthopaedic centre.

Eric Dalgleish, another Tulsa deputy police chief, said he believed the victims included employees and patients.

The White House said President Joe Biden has been briefed on the shooting and offered support to state and local officials in Tulsa, a city of about 411,000 people that sits about 160km northeast of the capital Oklahoma City.

The Tulsa shooting follows two mass shootings in May that shocked Americans and reignited debates about gun control. Last week, a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas. Earlier in May, a shooter killed 10 people at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York. 

 

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/us-tulsa-oklahoma-gun-shooting-people-dead-medical-building-hospital-2721976

 

 

[Londonchocolateroll]

When you are under 21 and you cant buy alcohol, cigarettes or even lottery but can buy guns? I dont even bother to read this kind of news anymore.

[XianGe]

Nothing new... 

[Huat Zai]

Oklahoma shooter killed surgeon treating him for back pain: Police

 

Police officers responded quickly to emergency calls about an active shooter in the Natalie Building at St Francis Hospital in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where the gunman killed four people. (Photo: Tulsa Police Department/AFP)

 

TULSA: The gunman who shot dead four people at a hospital in the US state of Oklahoma killed the surgeon whom he blamed for pain after back surgery, police said on Thursday (Jun 2).

The suspect, identified as Michael Louis, stormed into the Saint Francis hospital in the city of Tulsa on Wednesday with a rifle and a handgun, in the latest mass shooting in the United States in recent weeks.

Louis had recently been operated on by surgeon Preston Phillips at the hospital and had called the clinic to complain of continuing back pain, Tulsa Police Chief Wendell Franklin said during a press conference.

Police found "a letter on the suspect, which made it clear that he came in with the intent to kill Dr Phillips and anyone who got in his way," Franklin said.

"He blamed Dr Phillips for the ongoing pain following the surgery."

As well as Phillips, the other victims included another physician, a receptionist and a patient.

"They stood in the way and Lewis gunned them down," Franklin said, adding Louis then shot himself.

The suspect purchased an semi-automatic gun at a local gun shop shortly before the shooting, police said.

The killings come as families in Texas bury their dead after a school shooting left 19 young children and two teachers dead last week.

The tragedies have prompted calls for tighter gun control legislation but US lawmakers have failed to pass significant new laws despite years of worsening gun violence.

According to the Gun Violence Archive, there have been 233 mass shootings this year in the United States. It defines mass shootings as when four or more people are injured or killed in a single event, not including the shooter.

 

https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/oklahoma-shooter-killed-surgeon-treating-him-back-pain-police-2724031