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Fort Lee given all-clear after shooting at Virginia army base | Fort Lee given all-clear after shooting at Virginia army base |
(about 3 hours later) | |
The Fort Lee army base in Virginia was locked down for about an hour on Monday after an armed female soldier barricaded herself in an office and then shot herself. | |
“During negotiations with the soldier, she chose to turn the weapon on herself,” Army Major General Stephen Lyons said. | |
Lyons described the soldier as “enraged” after entering the Combined Arms Support Command Headquarters building 5020, and then barricading herself in an office on the third floor of the four story building. About 1,100 people were in the building at the time of the incident, the Associated Press reported. | |
Fort Lee police arrived within about two minutes, followed by the FBI, Lyons said. While in negotiations with law enforcement the woman shot herself. The incident was reported cleared by the base’s Facebook page at 9:50am. | |
The soldier was brought to Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center for treatment, and neither her condition nor her identity were released. She is a sergeant first-class who has been with the army for 14 years and at Fort Lee for three, Lyons said, according to the Associated Press. The soldier did not use her service weapon during the incident. | |
“Soldiers and civilians responded appropriately,” said Lyons. The base followed an “active shooter protocol,” according to media relations personnel. “This situation could have been worse,” he said. | |
The base has a daily population of 34,000 and is the Army’s third-largest training site, according to the base’s website. Fort Lee is about 28 miles south of Richmond, Virginia and 135 miles south of Washington DC. | |
“The investigation obviously will continue,” said Lyons. “We are sad for our soldier in arms that she faced those kinds of challenges that she felt she had to resort to those kinds of actions. At the same time, we’re equally grateful, because this situation could have been worse.” | |