A Chicago veterans hospital avoided bloodshed yesterday when police tackled a shooter with an assault rifle without firing a single shot....
A Chicago veterans hospital avoided bloodshed yesterday when police tackled a shooter with an assault rifle without firing a single shot.
The assailant fired 'eight shots' outside the Jesse Brown Veteran Affairs Medical Center building in West Chicago, before entering and firing more, according to eyewitnesses.
Jeffrey Sallet, special agent in charge of Chicago's FBI field office said Veteran Affairs police 'ran towards the shots, resulting in a quick mitigation of the threat.'
Though hospital staff and patients ran for the exit, 'nobody was hurt, there was nobody injured, there was nobody hit,' Sallet said at the end of a press conference.
'We avoided tragedy here in the city of Chicago today.'
He said the shooter was then tackled by VA police who responded within 30 seconds.
Michael Watson, an eyewitness, told Chicago's WGN Network: 'He had the rifle, the VA police grabbed him, took the rifle from him and put him in custody.'
The police did not have to fire a single shot. Authorities added that the unidentified suspect is not thought to be a military veteran.
Police spokesman Tom Ahern said investigators are still working on what led to the attack or who the man might have been targeting.
According to eyewitnesses interviewed at the scene by Chicago's WGN Network, the gunman ran into the hospital and said 'where's the ER?'
The 200-bed hospital on Chicago's West Side provides care to about 62,000 military veterans.
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