Gunman kills four in Oklahoma medical centre

TULSA, OKLAHOMA — A man armed with a rifle and handgun opened fire on Wednesday (June 1) inside a medical building in Tulsa, Oklahoma, killing four people, police said, in the latest of a series of mass shootings in the US. 

The shooter also died, apparently of a self-inflicted wound, Tulsa deputy police chief Jonathan Brooks told reporters outside the St Francis Hospital campus.

Mr Brooks said police were trying to determine the man's identity, but said he was aged between 35 and 40.

Officers arrived on the scene three minutes after receiving a call about the shooting and made contact with the victims and the suspect five minutes later, he said.

The gunman was armed with a rifle and a handgun.

Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum said: "I also want to express our community's profound gratitude for the broad range of first responders who did not hesitate today to respond to this act of violence." 

The shooting occurred on the second floor of the campus' Natalie Building, which contains doctors' offices including an orthopaedic centre, an outpatient surgery centre and a breast health centre. 

Mr Eric Dalgleish, another Tulsa deputy police chief, said he believed the victims included employees and patients.

The Tulsa Police Department said on Twitter that it had set up a reunification site for families at Memorial High School.

The White House said President Joe Biden had been briefed on the shooting and offered support to state and local officials in Tulsa, a city of some 411,000 people that sits around 160km north-east of capital Oklahoma City.

The shooting came just eight days after 19 students and two teachers were killed in a mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, and 18 days after 10 people were killed by a gunman at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York.

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