TULSA, Oklahoma, June 2 – At least four people were killed and several injured in a shooting at Saint Francis Hospital in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Wednesday, with the attacker losing his life, local police said. Coincidentally, the shooting happened on the 101st anniversary of the Tulsa racial massacre.
“We have four civilians who are dead and we have one gunman who is dead,” Tulsa Deputy Police Commissioner Eric Dalgleish told the media, bringing the death toll to five.
The shooting took place on the second floor of the building located in the Saint Francis Hospital facility in Tulsa, where Councilman Jayme Fowler told the CNN channel the assailant, who was carrying a rifle and handgun, was looking for a doctor who worked at the scene, an end that police have not confirmed.
Dalgleish pointed out that the identity of the attacker, a black man between the ages of 35 and 40, who arrived at the hospital at 4:40 p.m. local time, is still unknown. He also pointed out that detectives were interviewing witnesses to try to get the details of what happened.
Muskogee police told local outlet KJRH that they were notified by Tulsa police that the suspected gunman may have left a bomb at a home in Muskogee, so police evacuated the home and notified people in the area, that they stayed inside.
Wednesday’s shooting comes days after one person was killed and seven others injured at an outdoor festival in Taft, Oklahoma, about 45 miles southeast of Tulsa. A 26-year-old man was taken into custody in Sunday morning’s shooting, The Hill said.
US President Joe Biden vowed Tuesday to meet with members of Congress to discuss gun control in the wake of the Uvalde, Texas incidents.
The Hill also reported Thursday that gun rights groups are preparing to launch an aggressive campaign against any legislation in Congress in response to the Uvalde, Texas, elementary school massacre. Such measures appear to be gaining traction as a possible compromise between Democrats and Republicans.
Nineteen states and the District of Columbia already have red flag laws. The statute seeks to prevent incidents of gun violence by empowering third parties, including affected family members and law enforcement officials, to petition courts to issue “extreme risk” protection orders prohibiting the sale of guns to anyone believed to be a threat.
After the shocking Uvalde primary school massacre that left 19 children and two adults dead, a bipartisan group of senators formed in the days that followed to discuss options for a modest agreement on a legislative response.
Telesur, in turn, reported that a week after the Uvalde massacre, nine people died and several dozen were injured in multiple shootings during Memorial Day weekend, and during the week the number of shootings reached 233, according to the latest figures. Massively compiled by the Gun Violence Archives.
There were 15 mass shootings between Friday and Tuesday, according to the count in the filing that tracks incidents of gun violence across the United States, including mass shootings who were shot, wounded, or shot dead as at least four victims, without counting the shooter.
The first five months of gun violence in the US in 2022, as of June 1, left 8,031 gun deaths; 15,119 wounded; including 466 children and 1,924 juveniles, and 469 incidents of the use of defensive weapons, which the Centers for Disease Control estimates resulted in approximately 10,032 suicides.