Virginia Beach shooting: At least 13 dead, including shooter
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A disgruntled public utility employee opened fire on co-workers at city offices in Virginia Beach, Virginia, killing 12 people and wounding several others before he was fatally shot by police, authorities say.
Virginia Beach Police Chief James Cervera said the mass shooting in the coastal resort city began as the gunman entered the public works and utilities building at the city municipal centre and “immediately and indiscriminately fired upon all the victims”.
The chief later said that the suspect engaged in a “long-term gun battle” with law enforcement officers as police confronted him inside the building.
One police officer was wounded in the shootout, but his bullet-proof vest saved his life, Mr Cervera said.
The police chief said the suspect was armed with a .45-calibre handgun equipped with a “sound suppressor” device and was reloading his weapon with extended ammunition magazines as he moved through the building.
“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, neighbours, colleagues.”
Authorities said the gunman ultimately was shot by police and was pronounced dead at a hospital.
Mr Cervera 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.
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 shooting happened just after 4pm when the gunman entered one of the buildings at the Virginia Beach municipal complex.
Further official details of the gun violence were not immediately available. But a public works employee told a local NBC television news affiliate that employees were at their desks when gunshots rang out and recounted seeing a badly injured woman in a stairwell, WAVY-TV reported on its website.
The Virginian-Pilot newspaper reported, citing a police officer, that a shooter had been inside the “operations building” situated next door to City Hall.
Virginia Governor Ralph Northam said on Twitter his team was “actively monitoring the situation in Virginia Beach,” and he too urged the public to keep its distance from the area and “follow all instructions from law enforcement.”
ACTIVE SHOOTER SITUATION-municipal center, building 2. Multiple injuries. At this time it is believed that only 1 shooter, and they have been taken into custody. More to follow
— Virginia Beach PD (@VBPD) May 31, 2019
ACTIVE SHOOTER SITUATION-municipal center, building 2. Multiple injuries. At this time it is believed that only 1 shooter, and they have been taken into custody. More to follow
— Virginia Beach PD (@VBPD) May 31, 2019
City Councilwoman Barbara Henley told the Virginian-Pilot she had just pulled up to the City Hall building when she noticed municipal employees standing outside using their cell phones, and someone told her there was a shooting and she should leave.
Ms Henley had gotten back in her car when she heard a male voice shout, “Get down,” as bystanders scattered, she told the newspaper. “I was scared to death.”
Virginia Beach, a coastal resort on the Atlantic at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, ranks as the most populous city in the state with roughly 450,000 year-round residents.
The building where the shooting took place in Virginia Beach, a city on the east coast of the US about 320km southeast of Washington, housed the city’s public works and utility offices.
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