Mass Shooting at Sikh Temple in Wisconsin
Original: There's a hostage situation at the scene of a mass shooting at a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin right now. Between two and four gunmen opened fire on the temple Sunday afternoon, and reports are saying there's currently children being held hostage in the basement of the church.
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NBC affiliate TMJ4 reports at least four people were shot outside when the attackers initially opened fire on the church. The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reports children were being held inside the temple by two of the shooters. A priest was communicating with officials from inside a locked bathroom using his cell phone while police surrounded the building. SWAT teams descended upon the church and extracted as many victims as they could. Local radio stations are reporting up to 30 people have been injured so far, and that there were gunshots and an explosion heard inside the church when the SWAT teams entered the building. The first officer who responded to the call was shot multiple times, but is expected to survive. One of the shooters was "put down" by police outside of the church, CNN reports. There's very little known about the shooters so far. Witnesses believe there was more than one, and they were white males. The media's been directed to not show aerial shots of the grounds so they don't give away tactical information.
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This story is still developing and we'll update this as we know more.
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Update 3:02 p.m.: The chief of police gave his first briefing to the media. Seven people are dead. There were four victims inside the church and three outside. One of the victims was a shooter, but police aren't identifying any additional gunmen just yet.
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Update 3:09 p.m.: Pictures from the scene have been hard to come by, but Buzzfeed's Andrew Kaczynski has a round up of photos of the crowd, and emergency response officials around the church.
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Update 4:54 p.m.: Mother Jones has a good barebones account of everything we know so far. The chief of police delayed a second media briefing. Andrew Kaczynski tweeted this Oak Creek Patch story about the Sikh community being threatened in the past. Obama and Romney have both issued statements on the shooting. There's no new information on the shooter(s).
Update 5:39 p.m.: The chief of police said he expects the responding officer who was shot to make a full recovery during the second media briefing. "We believe it was one (gunman), but I can't be sure," he said. The FBI is handling the investigation and they're calling the attack "domestic terrorism." CNN is reporting two semi-automatic handguns were recovered from the scene. There won't be another update from law enforcement until 10 a.m. Monday morning.
