Luther
Kage in the Making 👑
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Shootings at a pair of military facilities in Chattanooga, Tenn., Thursday, left five people dead, including four Marines and the lone gunman, officials said.
"It is incomprehensible to see what happened," Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke said at a news conference Thursday afternoon. "This is a nightmare for the city of Chattanooga."
Three other people, including a Chattanooga police officer, were wounded in the shootings, Berke said. They were transported to local hospitals with non-life-threatening injuries.
The shootings began shortly after 10:30 a.m. at a National Guard office in a strip mall on Lee Highway. A witness there described hearing as many as 20 shots fired there before the gunman fled. A photo posted to Facebook by a witness shows the door of the office littered with bullet holes.
The shooter then drove 7 miles to the Chattanooga Naval Reserve Center, where a witness told CNN she saw a man with "a high-powered rifle" fire multiple shots from a convertible silver Mustang into recruiting offices at the center shortly before 11 a.m. ET.
Four U.S. Marines were killed at the naval center, Pentagon officials told CNN. Their names have yet to be released.
The gunman, who has yet to be publicly identified, was killed at that scene.
"This individual brutally and brazenly attacked members of our armed forces," Chattanooga Police Chief Fred Fletcher said at the news conference. He declined to speculate on a motive.
Because the shootings occurred at U.S. military facilities, the FBI is leading the investigation.
U.S. District Attorney William C. Killian said officials were treating the shootings "as an act of domestic terrorism."
But Ed Reinhold, special agent in charge of the FBI's Knoxville field office, said at this point there is no evidence to suggest it was.
As news of the shootings broke, Berke cut short a news conference at City Hall.
"This is a very, very terrible situation," he told reporters. "I'm very concerned about what's going on. We need to figure out how to handle it."
Hospitals, businesses and the nearby Chattanooga State Community College were placed on lockdown.
Tiger Alert!!! Main Campus: Confirmed shooting. Stay away from Riverpark. Everyone stay inside, close doors.
— Chattanooga State (@ChattStateCC) July 16, 2015
Early Thursday afternoon, the Chattanooga Police Department announced via Twitter that the active shooter situation was over.
Thursday's shootings occurred less than two years after the September 2013 massacre at the Washington Navy Yard, where a lone gunman killed 12 people in the second-deadliest attack on a military base in U.S. history.
The gunman in that attack, Aaron Alexis, was a former third-class naval petty officer in the Navy who had been honorably discharged two and a half years prior to the shooting.
Earlier this month, authorities investigated another possible shooting at the Navy Yard after an employee reported hearing possible gunfire. The base was later declared all clear.
RIP To The Four Soldiers.
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