Hospital, college in lockdown.
By Raif Karerat
WASHINGTON, DC: At least two U.S. Marines and a police officer were shot in Chattanooga, Tennessee Thursday morning after gunshots were reported at both a Navy recruitment station center a separate army recruiting center. A college and a hospital is in lockdown there.
One officer is “down” in connection with the shootings, Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke told reporters, but was not specific about the officer’s condition.Follow @ambazaarmag
After the Navy facility was assaulted, military recruiters at a facility seven miles away that they were also attacked by a shooter in a car. The shooter stopped in front of the recruiting facility, shot at the building and drove off, said Brian Lepley, a spokesman with the U.S. Army Recruiting Command in Fort Knox, Kentucky.
The Army recruiters at the facility told Lepley they were not hurt and had evacuated, according to the Associated Press.
Marilyn Hutcheson, who works across the street from the U.S. Naval Reserve building on Amnicola Highway, told the AP she heard a barrage of gunfire around 11 a.m.
“I couldn’t even begin to tell you how many,” she said. “It was rapid fire, like pow pow pow pow pow, so quickly. The next thing I knew, there were police cars coming from every direction.”
She ran inside, where she remained locked down with other employees and a customer. The gunfire continued with occasional bursts she estimated for 20 minutes.
Memorial Hospital in Chattanooga is “on precautionary lockdown” due to the shooting reports, according to CNN, and so is Chattanooga College.
“We have not received any shooting victims,” hospital system spokeswoman Lisa McCluskey said. “We are still accepting new patients.” The lockdown, she said, “is just a precautionary measure.”