The U.S. Army said on Thursday that all five soldiers injured in Wednesday’s shooting at a military base in Georgia are expected to make a full recovery, with three already discharged from the hospital.
The Army commended the quick response of fellow soldiers who subdued the shooter and provided immediate aid to the wounded, which helped save lives.
A U.S. Army sergeant is suspected of having shot and wounded five soldiers with a personal handgun on Wednesday at Fort Stewart-Hunter Army Airfield near Savannah.
The suspect, who was taken into custody, has been identified as Quornelius Radford, 28, an active-duty sergeant specializing in automated logistics.
Brigadier General John Lubas, who commands Fort Stewart, said one of the injured soldiers had a “little bit longer road to recovery,” but doctors expected her to fully recover.
Suspect Restrained
Lubas, along with Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll, recounted how one soldier tackled the suspect and wrestled his gun away when the shooting started.
A second soldier jumped on the suspect and restrained him until police arrived. Others attended to the wounded soldiers.
“We talked to doctors, and one of the things that I can say unequivocally is that the fast action of these soldiers, under stress and under trauma and under fire, absolutely saved lives from being lost,” Driscoll told reporters.
The Army said it was too early to speculate on the motive for the shooting.
Mass shootings are relatively common in the United States, where guns are widely available, and military bases, which are among the highest-security places in the country, have not been spared.
The deadliest was at the Fort Hood Army base in 2009, when a major fatally shot unarmed soldiers in a medical building with a laser-sighted handgun, killing 13 people and injuring more than 30.
Less than five years later, a soldier at the same Texas base fatally shot three service members and injured 16 others before killing himself.
Fort Stewart is located in Hinesville, about 225 miles (362 km) southeast of Atlanta and 40 miles (64 km) southwest of Savannah. Nearly 9,000 people live at the base, according to the 2020 Census.
The base supports approximately 15,000 active-duty Army military personnel, as well as thousands of military retirees, family members and others, according to its website.
(With inputs from Reuters)
