Sean Murphy and Terry Wallace, The Associated Press Posted on Thursday, June 2, 2022 at 8:18 AM EDT Last Updated on Thursday, June 2, 2022 at 8:18 EDT
A gunman carrying a rifle and a gun has killed four people in a Tulsa medical building on a hospital campus, police said, the latest in a series of deadly shootings across the country in recent weeks.
Wednesday’s shooting at the Saint Francis Health System campus took place the same week that families in Uvalde, Texas, began burying the dead of the deadliest school shooting in nearly a decade.
The victims and the gunman in Tulsa were found on the second floor of a medical office where an orthopedic clinic is located, police said. The shooter, whose name has not been released, was killed by an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, said Tulsa Police Department Deputy Chief Eric Dalgleish.
Officials scheduled a press conference Thursday morning with police and hospital officials to divulge more information. All appointments at the orthopedic clinic were canceled until Friday.
The recent rise in armed violence across the country, including the killing of 19 children and two teachers at Robb d’Uvalde Primary School by an 18-year-old gunman carrying an AR-style semi-automatic rifle, has led Democratic leaders to amplify their call for more gun restrictions, while Republicans emphasize more security in schools.
The split reflects a partisan split that has hampered action in Congress and many state chapters on how best to respond to a record number of gun-related deaths in the U.S.
It was unclear what caused the deadly assault on Tulsa, Dalgleish said. Authorities later executed a search warrant at a Muskogee home about 70 miles southeast of Tulsa in connection with the investigation, police said.
“It looks like the two guns were fired at one point or another at the scene,” Dalgleish said. “The officers who arrived were listening to shots in the building, and that’s what brought them to the second floor.”
Police responded to the call about three minutes after dispatchers received the report at 4:52 p.m., and contacted the gunman about five minutes later at 5:01 p.m., Dalgleish said.
“I was very pleased with what we know so far about the response from our officers,” Dalgleish said.
The length of time it took for Uvalde police officers to confront the gunman during the deadly shooting at a Texas school last week has become a key focus of this investigation. Officers waited more than an hour to enter the classroom where the gunman attacked.
Tulsa Police Captain Richard Meulenberg also said several people were injured and that the medical complex was a “catastrophic scene.” The exact number of injured was not immediately known.
Police and hospital officials said they were not prepared to identify the dead.
The health system of St. Francis closed its campus on Wednesday afternoon due to the situation in the Natalie Medical Building, which houses outpatient clinics and other medical offices.
“This campus is sacred ground for our community,” said Tulsa Mayor GT Bynum. “For decades, this campus has been a place where heroes come to work every day to save the lives of the people in our community.”
Bynum added: “Right now, my thoughts are with the victims. If we want to have a political discussion, this is something that will be done in the future, but not tonight.”
Philip Tankersley, 27, was leaving his father’s room at nearby Saint Francis Hospital around 5 p.m., when hospital staff said there was an active shooter in the on the other hand, he locked the doors and warned them to stay away from the windows.
Tankersley said he and his mother took refuge in his father’s hospital room for more than an hour, trying to learn bits of information from the TV news and the nurses passing by. He said they heard “silver code” and “level 1 trauma” announced on hospital speakers and wondered if they were safe in the room.
“I wasn’t particularly worried because the two people I have to keep an eye on were in the same room as me,” he said. “But it was definitely a time” this is happening here. “
Wednesday’s shooting also comes just over two weeks after the shooting at a Buffalo supermarket by a white man accused of killing 10 blacks in a racist attack. Memorial Day weekend saw several mass shootings across the country, including an open-air festival in Taft, Oklahoma, 45 miles from Tulsa, though incidents of a single death most killed by weapons.
Since January, there have been 12 shootings in which four or more people have been killed, according to The Associated Press / USA TODAY / Noreastern University’s massacre database. These shootings have left 76 dead, including 31 adults and children in Buffalo and Texas, according to the database. The death toll does not include the suspects in the shootings.
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Jill Bleed in Little Rock, Arkansas, Jake Bleiberg in Dallas, and Mike Balsamo in Washington contributed to this report.