Tulsa shooting: Everything we know about the hospital gunman
A mass shooting has occurred at a hospital campus in Tulsa in the aftermath of a spate of horrific shootings in Texas and Buffalo that led to a devastating loss of lives.
Five people, including the shooter, were confirmed dead at the medical facility in Tulsa, Oklahoma on Wednesday.
In what was described as a “catastrophic scene” by Captain Richard Meulenberg of Tulsa’s police department, he said they found multiple people injured upon arrival at the Natalie Medical Building, a part of the sprawling campus of Saint Francis hospital in southeast Tulsa.
What we know about the shooter
The Tulsa police department has not released the name of the shooter or any information regarding those shot because of an ongoing investigation at the scene.
Addressing a press conference, deputy police chief Eric Dalgleish said the shooter was a Black male, aged between 35 and 40.
He died from fatal gunshot wounds believed to have been “self-inflicted”.
The suspect shooter “had one long gun and one hand gun on the scene at the time”, he said.
Mr Dalgleish said the department received a call about the shooting at 4.52pm and arrived at the scene within three minutes. He said they made contact with the gunman minutes later at 5.01pm.
“The officers who did arrive did hear shots in the building and that’s what directed them to the second floor,” he said.
The shooting occurred on the second floor of the Natalie Medical Building.
Upon reaching the second floor, officers immediately found a victim and subsequently the body of the gunman, who appeared to have died by suicide.
Mr Dalgleish said the victims of the shooting could be a combination of workers and patients at the medical facility. None of those injured received life-threatening injuries, he said, adding no police officers were injured in the attack.
“It wasn’t random,” said Mr Meulenberg. “This wasn’t an individual who just decided he wanted to go find a hospital full of random people. He deliberately made a choice to come here and his actions were deliberate,” claimed the police captain while declining to share more details about the gunman’s motive.
Tulsa mayor GY Bynum reacted to the shooting by describing the hospital campus as a “sacred ground” for their community.
“For decades, this campus has been a place where heroes come to work every day to save the lives of people in our community,” he said.
“Right now, my thoughts are with the victims. If we want to have a policy discussion, that is something to be had in the future, but not tonight.”
The St Francis hospital locked down its campus on Wednesday after the shooting at the Natalie building, which houses an outpatient surgery centre and a breast health centre.
Philip Tankersley, 27, who was at the St Francis hospital, said staff told him there was an active shooter in the building across the street and they locked the doors, warning everyone to stay away from the windows.
“I wasn’t particularly worried because the two people that I need to look out for were in that same room as me,” he said. “But it was definitely a ‘this is happening here’ moment.”
Possible bomb threat
There was an active bomb threat in Muskogee city, which has been connected to the mass shooting at the building, the Muskogee police department said.
Police evacuated a house and urged people in the area to stay inside their homes as the gunman may have left a bomb at a home in Muskogee, about 50 miles southeast of Tulsa.
“We are the scene at 3325 Park Place North in reference to a possible bomb inside,” said Muskogee police department spokesperson Lynn Hamlin.
“At this time we have evacuated the house and have notified everyone in the area to stay inside their homes.”
Authorities later cleared the bomb threat “linked to the shooting”.
