When a gunman opened fire at Fort Stewart in Georgia, six soldiers immediately jumped into action to stop the shooter and tend to their fellow service members who were wounded, the secretary of the Army said.
Automated logistics Sgt. Quornelius Radford allegedly opened fire with his personal handgun at the 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team area on Wednesday morning, shooting and wounding five other soldiers, according to Brig. Gen. John Lubas, the 3rd Infantry Division and Fort Stewart-Hunter Army Airfield commander.
When the shots rang out, one soldier — who was unarmed — ran at and tackled the gunman who “was actively shooting,” Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll said at a news conference on Thursday.
“Another solider jumped on top of the person to subdue them,” Driscoll said, adding “the other soldiers immediately … started to take care of mass casualties.”
Surgeons said the soldiers’ quick work to stop the bleeding “certainly saved their lives,” according to Lubas.
Driscoll praised their “heroism,” saying, “The fast action of these soldiers under stress and under trauma and under fire absolutely saved lives from being lost.”
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“We are just so incredibly proud of them. We are so grateful for them,” Driscoll said.
Three of the five wounded soldiers were released from the hospital on Wednesday, Lubas said. The fourth soldier, a woman, may be released from the hospital this weekend, and the fifth soldier, also a woman, has a “longer road,” but doctors are hopeful for a full recovery, Lubas said on Thursday.
A motive is not clear, Lubas said, but the shooting involved Radford’s co-workers and was at his “place of work.” Radford used a personal handgun, but it’s not clear how he brought it to his workplace, Lubas added. Having a personal gun on base is a violation, officials said Thursday.
Radford has been interviewed by Army investigators and is in custody, Lubas said.
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Radford has not previously deployed to combat, Lubas said. He had been arrested locally for a DUI, Lubas said, noting the arrest was “unknown to his chain of command until the [shooting] occurred and we started looking into the law enforcement databases.”
President Donald Trump said on Wednesday, “The entire nation is praying for the victims and their families, and hopefully they’ll fully recover.”
“The perpetrator of this atrocity — which is exactly what it is — will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” Trump added.
