5 Soldiers Shot At Fort Stewart; Suspect In Custody

Five U.S. soldiers were shot Wednesday morning at Fort Stewart, Ga., before the shooter was apprehended, Army officials have confirmed.

The incident, which took place in the 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team area, caused a base-wide lockdown that lasted just more than an hour. Parts of the installation, including the area where the shooting took place, remained under lockdown as of 1 p.m., officials said in a social media post.

Law enforcement agents were quickly able to apprehend the shooter at 11:35 a.m. after they were dispatched for a possible shooting at 10:56 a.m., officials said.

“All five soldiers were treated on-site and moved to Winn Army Community Hospital for further treatment,” the Army statement says. “There is no active threat to the community.”

President Trump has been briefed on the Fort Stewart shooting, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on X.  

The Army base, about 40 miles southwest of Savannah, was placed on lockdown at 11:04 a.m. due to the active shooter. At 11:09, emergency medical personnel were dispatched to treat the wounded soldiers. Fort Stewart leaders lifted the lockdown of the main cantonment area at 12:10 p.m. 

Schools in the area were also placed on lockdown.

The incident remains under investigation by the Army Criminal Investigation Division, which is coordinating with the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Atlanta office “for any assistance that might be needed,” according to the bureau.

Georgia's political leaders quickly took to social media to offer their condolences, including Gov. Brian Kemp (R), who said he’s in touch with police now at Fort Stewart.

“As we remain in close contact with law enforcement on the ground, Marty, the girls, and I are saddened by today’s tragedy at Ft. Stewart,” Kemp said in a statement posted to social media. 

“We are keeping the victims, their families, and all those who answer the call to serve in our hearts and prayers, and we ask that Georgians everywhere do the same.”

Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) said he was “heartbroken to see the news of an active shooter incident at Fort Stewart today.”

“[I] join all of Georgia as we pray for the safety of our servicemembers, staff, and their families,” Warnock said in a post on X.

Fort Stewart, home to the 3rd Infantry Division, trains and deploys active and reserve Army units and has more than 10,000 soldiers, family members and civilian employees who reside on the base.

It is now the location of at least the seventh major shooting on an Army base in just over 15 years, starting with the deadly Fort Hood shooting in November 2009. In that attack, an Army psychiatrist with radical Islamist beliefs killed 13 people and wounded 32 others at a processing center on the base.

That was followed by the shooting at Washington Navy Yard in Washington, D.C. in September 2013, when the gunman — a 34-year old military contractor believed to be suffering delusions — fatally shot 12 people and injured three others at the headquarters of the Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA). The attack remains the deadliest mass shooting in the nation’s capital and the second-deadliest on a U.S. military base.

Fort Hood was also the location of an April 2014 mass shooting that claimed three lives and wounded 16 others. All were military personnel.

Then in July 2015: Military recruitment center and a Navy and Marines reserve center in Chattanooga, Tennessee

The last mass shootings on military bases took place only two days apart in December 2019.

In the first, on Dec. 4 at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, two individuals were killed and another injured before the gunman took his own life. In the second, on Dec. 6 at Pensacola Naval Air Station, Fla., a Saudi Arabian soldier training with the U.S. military fatally shot three people and injured eight others. That incident was believed to be a terrorist attack.

Updated: 1:24 p.m.