NOVANEWS
Police respond to the crime scene at the US Navy command center in Washington on Monday.
WASHINGTON, September 16 (RIA Novosti) – Officials said multiple people were killed and several others wounded in a shooting rampage at a US Navy administrative center in Washington on Monday carried out by as many as three gunmen, an attack that sparked panic in the American capital.
Washington police chief Cathy Lanier told a news conference that “multiple” people died as a result of the attack at the Washington Navy Yard, though she declined to be more specific. But two US Navy officials told The Associated Press that at least six people had died in the shooting and that as many as 10 were wounded.
One suspected gunman was killed after police swarmed the premises, but two other possible shooters – both men wearing “military-style” uniforms remained at large as of Monday afternoon, Lanier said.
“The big concern for us right now is that we have potentially two other shooters that we have not located at this point,” Lanier said.
US President Barack Obama said Monday afternoon that he had been briefed about the attack, and he alluded to the numerous mass shootings that have been carried out in US schools, workplaces and entertainment venues in recent decades.
“We still don’t know all the facts, but we do know that several people have been shot and some have been killed,” Obama said. “We are confronting yet another mass shooting and today it happened on a military installation in our nation’s capital.”
The Navy said on its Twitter feed that three shots were fired at 8:20 a.m. (1220 GMT) inside its Naval Sea Systems Command headquarters, which is responsible for building, purchasing and maintaining submarines and ships in America’s naval fleet. Around 3,000 people work in the building, the Navy said.
Helicopters patrolled the skies of Washington on Monday morning as hundreds of police and rescue teams converged on the Navy Yard in southeastern Washington, about 3.5 miles (5.6 km) from the White House, after reports of the attack began to surface.
Navy spokeswoman Courtney Hilson told the Los Angeles Times that the number of victims remained preliminary Monday morning as authorities conducted a room-by-room search of the Naval Sea Systems headquarters.
Numerous federal and local law enforcement agencies are coordinating in the investigation, Lanier said, including the US Federal Bureau of Investigations, whose evidence teams were seen arriving at the Navy yard Monday morning, according to local media.
There was no immediate indication of what the motive for the attack might be, but ABC News reported that the deceased suspected shooter has been described as a “former Navy official in his fifties whose work status recently changed.”
Monday’s assault was the second shooting rampage on a US domestic military installation over the past four years. On Nov. 5, 2009, Maj. Nidal Hasan opened fire in a crowded waiting room at a medical processing center filled with troops at the Fort Hood military base in Texas.
That attack left 13 people dead and more than 30 wounded. A US military jury last month sentenced Hasan to death after he admitted he was the gunman.
Hasan, a US-born Muslim, indicated in media leaks and statements to the judge in the case that he believed the attack was justified in order to protect Muslim and Taliban leaders from US forces operating in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Updated with comments from Obama and Lanier, a higher reported death toll, and background throughout.
Washington police chief Cathy Lanier told a news conference that “multiple” people died as a result of the attack at the Washington Navy Yard, though she declined to be more specific. But two US Navy officials told The Associated Press that at least six people had died in the shooting and that as many as 10 were wounded.
One suspected gunman was killed after police swarmed the premises, but two other possible shooters – both men wearing “military-style” uniforms remained at large as of Monday afternoon, Lanier said.
“The big concern for us right now is that we have potentially two other shooters that we have not located at this point,” Lanier said.
US President Barack Obama said Monday afternoon that he had been briefed about the attack, and he alluded to the numerous mass shootings that have been carried out in US schools, workplaces and entertainment venues in recent decades.
“We still don’t know all the facts, but we do know that several people have been shot and some have been killed,” Obama said. “We are confronting yet another mass shooting and today it happened on a military installation in our nation’s capital.”
The Navy said on its Twitter feed that three shots were fired at 8:20 a.m. (1220 GMT) inside its Naval Sea Systems Command headquarters, which is responsible for building, purchasing and maintaining submarines and ships in America’s naval fleet. Around 3,000 people work in the building, the Navy said.
Helicopters patrolled the skies of Washington on Monday morning as hundreds of police and rescue teams converged on the Navy Yard in southeastern Washington, about 3.5 miles (5.6 km) from the White House, after reports of the attack began to surface.
Navy spokeswoman Courtney Hilson told the Los Angeles Times that the number of victims remained preliminary Monday morning as authorities conducted a room-by-room search of the Naval Sea Systems headquarters.
Numerous federal and local law enforcement agencies are coordinating in the investigation, Lanier said, including the US Federal Bureau of Investigations, whose evidence teams were seen arriving at the Navy yard Monday morning, according to local media.
There was no immediate indication of what the motive for the attack might be, but ABC News reported that the deceased suspected shooter has been described as a “former Navy official in his fifties whose work status recently changed.”
Monday’s assault was the second shooting rampage on a US domestic military installation over the past four years. On Nov. 5, 2009, Maj. Nidal Hasan opened fire in a crowded waiting room at a medical processing center filled with troops at the Fort Hood military base in Texas.
That attack left 13 people dead and more than 30 wounded. A US military jury last month sentenced Hasan to death after he admitted he was the gunman.
Hasan, a US-born Muslim, indicated in media leaks and statements to the judge in the case that he believed the attack was justified in order to protect Muslim and Taliban leaders from US forces operating in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Updated with comments from Obama and Lanier, a higher reported death toll, and background throughout.
