US: 4 killed in shooting at medical building, shooter dead
Barely a week after a teenage gunman killed 21 people at a Texas school, a shooter gunned down four people at a Tulsa medical building on a hospital campus in Oklahoma, US. The shooter was armed with a rifle and a handgun. He opened fire with both the weapons at the physicians' office on the premises, Tulsa Police Deputy Chief Eric Dalgleish said.
Police reached assault site within three minutes
The police said that they reached the site within three minutes and made contact with the gunman one minute later. Several were wounded and the medical complex was a "catastrophic scene," they added. It was unclear what prompted the shooter to carry out the assault. The identity of the shooter, believed to be aged between 35 and 40, has not been revealed yet.
Identity of shooter withheld
Tulsa Police Department Captain Richard Meulenberg said that they were working with other agencies and jurisdictions and refused to reveal the identity of the shooter. St. Francis Health System informed through a Facebook post that it had canceled appointments at Warren Clinic—where the incident took place—scheduled before noon on Thursday and some offices would be closed for the remainder of the week.
Spate of shooting incidents in the US
The US has seen a spate of shooting incidents lately with the most recent on Tuesday (local time) when an elderly woman was killed and two others were injured after gunfire erupted at a high school graduation ceremony in New Orleans. Earlier, on May 24, an 18-year-old shooter killed 21 people in a mass shooting incident at the Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.
Biden seeks Jacinda Ardern's advice to tackle violence in US
US President Joe Biden has been apprised about the Tulsa shooting incident, White House officials said in a statement. Notably, Biden had sought advice from New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern over tackling violence in the US amid rising shooting incidents in America. Biden cited Ardern's decision to ban military-style rifles following the 2019 Christchurch slaying of 51 people in mass shootings targeting Muslims.
Several initiatives to reform gun regulations have failed
Several initiatives to reform gun regulations in the US have failed in Congress despite many shooting incidents. The National Rifle Association has been fighting against stricter US gun laws. The US has seen 213 mass shootings in the first 21 weeks of 2022, including 27 school shootings and up to 10 mass shootings every week, according to the Gun Violence Archive.
