At least three people were injured, two of them critical, when a gunman opened fire at the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard in Hawaii on Wednesday before taking his own life, local media reported.
Security forces had responded to reports of a shooting at around 2:30 pm local time and that the base was on lockdown for several hours, a spokesman for the US base said.
“Officials at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam report the shooting incident at the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard has been secured. One person is confirmed dead. The shooter has been tentatively identified as a US Sailor,” Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard said in a statement.
“The sailor reportedly shot and injured three Department of Defense civilian workers before shooting themself. The incident took place this afternoon at the vicinity of the shipyard’s Dry Dock 2. The base is no longer in lockdown,” the statement added.
“Base security and Navy investigative services are currently investigating. The names of the victims will not be released until the next of kin have been notified,” it further said.
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One witness told local media he was sitting at his computer when he heard shots fired and rushed to the window where he saw three victims on the ground.
The witness said he then saw the gunman who was wearing what appeared to be a navy or sailor’s uniform shoot himself in the head.
The shooting reportedly took place near the south entrance of the sprawling base located on the southern shore of Oahu. Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam is a combined U.S. Air Force and Navy Installation located 8 miles (13 km) from Honolulu.
The shooting on Wednesday took place three days before the 78th anniversary of the 1941 Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor that left 2,403 US service members dead.
(With agency inputs)