Four Marines were reportedly killed Thursday at a Chattanooga, Tenn., Navy training center, in one of two attacks at area military facilities that happened nearly simultaneously and just seven miles apart.
The Marines were killed by a gunman who opened fire at a Naval Reserves Operations Center on Amnicola Highway, a U.S. official told The Associated Press. The official said the sole gunman was also killed . . .
The shooting there came around the same time that a gunman in a silver Mustang opened fire at an Armed Forces Career Center in a strip mall some seven miles away, on Lee’s Highway. 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, Ky. There were reports that a police officer was wounded in the shooting at the recruiting center, which Lepley said offers recruiting services for all four branches of the military.
As with all such incidents, take early reports with a grain of salt. Much is likely to change in the next several hours (and perhaps days), and it’s easy to look foolish jumping to early conclusions. Federal authorities are investigating all possible motives:
Authorities investigating the Chattanooga shootings “have not determined whether it was an act of terrorism or whether it was a criminal act,” FBI special agent in charge Ed Reinhold told reporters. “We are looking at every possible avenue, whether it was terrorism — whether it was domestic, international — or whether it was a simple, criminal act.”
For now, all we know is that service-members once again have been gunned down on home soil. May God bless the victims and their families.
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