11 killed in mass shooting in
Virginia; suspect gunned down
VIR
GINIA BEACH, VIRGINIA, JUNE
01, 2019 07:20 IST
Emergency
vehicles fill the parking lot at the Princess Anne Middle School in Virginia
Beach, Virginia, on Friday, May 31, 2019. | Photo Credit: AP
A disgruntled
city employee opened fire on co-workers. Six people have been wounded in this
incident of workplace gun violence.
A disgruntled public utility employee
opened fire on co-workers at city offices in Virginia Beach, Virginia, on
Friday afternoon, killing 11 people and wounding at least six others before he
was fatally shot by police, authorities said.
Virginia Beach Police Chief James
Cervera gave few details of what was known about the mass shooting in the
coastal resort city, but said the gunman “immediately and indiscriminately
fired upon all the victims” after he entered the municipal building shortly
after 4 p.m.
“The suspect did shoot a police officer.
The officers returned fire. The suspect is deceased,” Mr. Cervera said. A city
spokesman later confirmed to Reuters by email that the gunman was shot by
police and later pronounced dead at a hospital.
The officer hit was among six people who
survived their injuries, and he was saved by his bulletproof vest, Mr. Cervera
said.
The shooting was believed to be the deadliest act of workplace gun violence in
the United States since February, when a factory worker shot five colleagues to
death in Aurora, Illinois, just after he was let go from his job.
The precise circumstances of Friday’s
shooting remained under investigation, with FBI agents and Homeland Security
Department forensic technicians assisting local police due to the “size and
scope and intensity” of the crime scene, Mr. Cervera said.
The police chief said the suspect was a
longtime public utilities employee, and described him as “disgruntled”, but
declined to say more about what may have precipitated the attack.
“We have more questions than we really
have answers,” he told reporters about two hours after the shooting.
The bloodshed unfolded, according to Mr.
Cervera, at Building Two of the municipal center complex, a facility which
houses the city's public works and utilities next door to City Hall.
The complex lies several miles inland
from the town’s popular seashore, situated on the Atlantic coast at the mouth
of the Chesapeake Bay. It ranks as Virginia’s most populous city with roughly
450,000 year-round residents.
“This is the most devastating day in the
history of Virginia Beach,” Mayor Bobby Dyer said at a news conference with the
police chief. “The people involved are our friends, co-workers, neighbors,
colleagues.”
Arriving in town a short time after the
carnage, Virginia Governor Ralph Northam said. “This is just a horrific day.”
In Washington, a White House spokesman
said President Donald Trump had been briefed on the shooting and “continues to
monitor the situation”.
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