Lockdown Over Amid Shooting Investigation at Alabama Military Installation - UPDATE

[Saviolo]

Last edited Tue Jun 27, 2017, 02:25 PM - Edit history (1)

Source: NBC4 Washington

A lockdown was in place at a military arsenal in Alabama Tuesday, with its Twitter account calling it a "possible active shooter" and urging people on the base to "run hide fight" in a tweet.

A spokesman for Redstone Arsenal told Huntsville, Alabama, NBC affiliate WAFF-TV that there was possibly an active shooting.

An alert from the Marshall Space Flight Center said "situation exists near the Sparkman Center, RSA bldg. 5301," according to WAFF.

An active shooter training exercise was scheduled for the week, according to a Facebook post from the site, but WAFF said it was told the incident was unrelated.

*** UPDATE ***

Lockdown Over Amid Shooting Investigation at Alabama Military Installation

A lockdown was put in place at a military installation in Alabama for several hours Tuesday after an alert was sent out about a possible active shooter and urging people on the base to "run hide fight."

A spokesman for Redstone Arsenal told Huntsville, Alabama, NBC affiliate WAFF-TV that there was possibly an active shooting and was not a drill. The massive installation hosts several military and civilian organizations, including the Army Aviation and Missile Command and NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center.

The lockdown was lifted about 1:30 p.m. ET, public affairs officer Christopher Colster said.

He said the investigation was continuing at one building, called the Sparkman Center, which the Marshall center tweeted that employees should continue to avoid after the lockdown ended.


Read more: http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/national-international/Possible-Active-Shooter-Alabama-Redstone-Arsenal-431099023.html

---

Currently breaking, and details will change quickly, no doubt.

[Saviolo]

1. Also from the Express UK:

http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/821950/redstone-arsenal-alabama-shooter-lockdown-incident-us-army

A statement said: “MSFC and RSA are in a lockdown status. All installation gates are closed until further notice. Employees are to shelter in place.”

The alert initially caused some confusion, according to local media, because an active shooter drill had been planned for the day.

However, an email sent to employees at 10.31am local time said: "This is a real world event, which is not part of the exercise.

"The facility is under lockdown and all gates are closed. More to follow.

"This is NOT AN EXERCISE."

Ambulances have been spotted outside the base.

[milestogo]

2. It's Tuesday and we haven't had a mass shooting in days.

[stonecutter357]

3. WOW that is very close to me..

[House of Roberts]

13. I just left Drake Avenue Kroger 20 minutes ago.

Didn't find this out until I got back home just now.

[woodsprite]

4. This seems to be a new MO of shooters on bases.

Taking advantage of a training maneuver as a possible cover. Didn't something like this happen last week?

Scary! Especially since I have 3 nephews heading to the military between this summer and next.

[sarisataka]

10. Travis Air Force Base

About two weeks ago. That turned out to be a false alarm, there was no shooting or any other threat.

Hopefully this is another false alarm.

[Dickster]

5. This is really stupid, but

Why do they call them 'active' shooters? The word shooter implies that he or she is shooting. If they weren't shooting at something, they would not be a shooter. The addition of "active" to describe someone who is already doing something is just a way to hype a bad situation, imho. We wouldn't describe someone who, for example is running as an active runner, would we? They would just be a runner. Silly shit, but it bugs me. There, got it off my chest. Having said that, I hope no one is hurt or killed.

[IronLionZion]

9. The internal employee message systems use that phrase

to encourage the people on the inside to seek shelter, lock doors, or leave the area if outside, etc. Active just means it's happening right now. Once it's over and the police have taken control of it, then it was a shooter.

Most military and law enforcement facilities have active shooter drills just in case.

The news media repeats it for a different agenda. Mainly because it gets their audience's attention.

[defacto7]

11. to have an active shooter implies

the opposite is possible... an inactive shooter. But maybe that's a non-shooter or a shooter not shooting. But at a military installation I suppose there are a lot of those. Very confusing.

[Aristus]

6. We need to stop calling them 'shooters'.

Sounds like the kind of handle NRA gunfucks would kill, literally, to have appended to them in the mass media.

If we started calling them 'festering, pustulent, shitnozzles' on TV, the enthusiasm for mass gun murder would likely dry up very quickly.

[IronLionZion]

7. We could call them terrorists

[rawhideal]

8. Shooter

Sisterlaw works there

[exboyfil]

12. Have they changed the rules about carrying

weapons on base? They sure beat Obama to death about it, and they have had five + months to change it.

[haele]

14. No, they haven't changed the rules.

But if someone plans to bring one on base, there's about a 99% chance they can get away with it. Most bases don't have metal detectors; with facilities people and maintenance contractors going back and forth on an hourly basis, it's difficult to have a TSA style security set-up at every gate or building entrance - and pretty much impossible to scan vehicles for hidden weapons.

Base security tends to depend on visual inspections of vehicles and personnel, and through tracking on social media if it's suspected someone is getting ready to snap.

Of course - hopefully - it could be a false alarm with someone reporting shots fired. That typically happens when someone is late for muster, or bored, or feels alienated and wants to shake things up at his or her workplace, and happens far more often than someone actually snapping and shooting at people - which has been happening for a long time prior to all this "terrorist" talk.

FWIW, back in the 1980's I was one of around 20 workgroup that was shot at when a suicidal sailor realized our D.O. (a two-faced petty prick of a "mustang" officer who should never have gotten past E-5) was trying to get him kicked out of the Navy on false drug charges because the D.O felt the kid was useless.
Poor kid thought he was going to take the D.O out before taking himself out, but didn't have enough hate to actually aim at someone else.

Haele

[phatkatt]

15. I work on Redstone Arsenal

I work in a different location from where this happened. We were in "Lockdown Mode" for about 3 hours, but the all clear has been given. I understand that the people working in the building complex affected are being sent home. As of now, no casualties have been reported. We're hoping it was a false alarm.