Soldier opens fire at US military base, wounding five troops

WASHINGTON: A soldier opened fire at a US base in the southern state of Georgia on Wednesday, wounding five fellow troops before he was tackled and apprehended, a senior officer said.

Fort Stewart, a large Army base that is home to thousands of soldiers and their relatives, went into lockdown as emergency personnel raced to respond to the “active shooter” situation, with troops stepping in to help stop the violence.

“Soldiers in the area that witnessed the shooting immediately and without hesitation tackled the soldier, subdued him, that allowed law enforcement to then take him into custody,” Brigadier General John Lubas told a news conference.

Lubas – the commander of the 3rd Infantry Division, which is based at Fort Stewart – put the toll at five wounded, saying that “all are in stable condition and all are expected to recover.”

The general identified the alleged shooter as Sergeant Quornelius Radford, saying his motive was unclear.

A military weapon was not used in the shooting, which is believed to have been carried out with “a personal handgun,” Lubas said.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said President Donald Trump had been briefed on the incident, while US Attorney General Pam Bondi said federal law enforcement were “coordinating to provide support.”

Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was “monitoring the situation.”

Though relatively rare, shootings – including some apparent terror-related attacks – periodically target military facilities in the United States, a country that is plagued by an epidemic of gun violence.

In 2019, a US sailor fatally shot two people and wounded a third at the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard in Hawaii, while a Saudi military student shot dead three people at Naval Air Station Pensacola in Florida the same year.

In July 2015, Mohammad Youssuf Abdulazeez attacked two military installations in Tennessee, killing four Marines and a sailor. The FBI concluded the violence was inspired by a “foreign terrorist group.”

Two years earlier, Aaron Alexis killed 12 people and wounded eight at the Washington Navy Yard in the US capital, before being shot dead by officers.

And four years before that a US Army psychiatrist killed 13 people and wounded more than 30 at Fort Hood in Texas.