BREAKING NEWS: Four Marines were reportedly killed Thursday in one of two attacks at U.S. Navy facilities in Chattanooga, Tenn., and at least one shooter was dead.
The Marines were killed by a gunman who opened fire at a Naval Reserves Operations Center on Amnicola Highway, according to the Chattanooga Times Free Press. Marilyn Hutcheson, who works at Binswanger Glass just across the street from the Naval Reserve Center on Amnicola Highway, said she heard a barrage of gunfire around 11 a.m.
“It was rapid fire, like pow pow pow pow pow, so quickly” – Marilyn Hutcheson, a witness
“I couldn’t even begin to tell you how many,” she said. “It was rapid fire, like pow pow pow pow pow, so quickly. The next thing I knew, there were police cars coming from every direction.”
The names of the Marines who were reportedly shot were not immediately released, and government officials did not confirm the report.
The shooting there came around the same time that a gunman in a silver Mustang opened fire at a Navy recruiting office in a strip mall some seven miles away, on Lee’s Highway. The shooter stopped in front of the recruiting facility, shot at the building and drove off, said Brian Lepley, a spokesman with the U.S. Army Recruiting Command in Fort Knox, Ky.
Lepley said the recruiting center on Old Lee Highway has recruiting services for all four branches of the military. The Army recruiters told Lepley they have evacuated and are safe. He has no information about recruiters for the other branches.
It was not immediately known if the shootings were related, or what prompted them.
A federal law enforcement official told Fox News that officers from FBI’s Knoxville field office responded to the scene.
The Knoxville News Sentinel reported that there is a heavy police presence at the , along with five ambulances.
“There has been several [shootings] at several different locations. It’s a fluid situation,” John Harmon, a spokesman for the Tennessee Highway Patrol, told Reuters. It is not known if the shootings are related.
Lee University in Cleveland, which is about 30 minutes from the shooting, was also on lockdown
The Federal Aviation Administration said it was holding departing flights at their gates in Chattanooga, with delays projected to last 15 minutes or less.
“This is a very, very terrible situation,” Andy Berke, the city’s mayor told reporters. “I’m very concerned about what’s going on. We need to figure out how to handle it.”
FoxNews.com/The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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