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Five soldiers were wounded when an active-duty sergeant opened fire on his coworkers Wednesday at Fort Stewart in Georgia, officials said. The suspected shooter, who was taken into custody, used his personal weapon in the shooting, Brig. Gen. John Lubas, the fort's commander, told reporters.
Officials identified the suspect as Quornelius Radford, a 28-year-old automated logistics sergeant with the 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team. Officials the shooting happened in the combat team's area at the fort.
The suspect joined the Army in January 2018 as an automated logistical specialist and is from Jacksonville, Florida, an Army spokesperson told TheNews. He hadn't previously been deployed to combat, Lubas said.
The wounded soldiers were all in stable condition and expected to recover, Lubas said during an afternoon news conference. Three of the five soldiers required surgery. In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, the soldiers were treated on site and taken to an Army hospital. Two of the soldiers were then moved to a hospital in Savannah, Georgia, for additional care. None of the soldiers have been identified publicly.
Lubas said the suspect was being held in pretrial confinement and has been interviewed by the Army's Criminal Investigative Division, a federal law enforcement agency. An investigation into the shooting was ongoing.
Investigators weren't sure about the motivation for the shooting, Lubas said. He said the suspect had been arrested for DUI, which wasn't previously known to the suspect's chain of command. The gun used in the shooting was a personal weapon, not a military weapon, Lubas said.
During the shooting, soldiers in the area "immediately and without hesitation" tackled the suspect and subdued him, Lubas said. "These soldiers, without a doubt, prevented further casualties," he said.
Lubas said there wasn't any reason to believe that the shooting was related to terrorism or extremist beliefs and there wasn't any threat to the local community.
Law enforcement officers responded to initial reports of the shooting at 10:56 a.m. local time, officials said. The fort was locked down at 11:04 a.m., and the suspect was in custody at 11:35 a.m., officials said. Officials that the fort was "all clear" just before 2 p.m.
President Trump has been briefed on the shooting and the White House is monitoring the situation, press secretary Karoline Leavitt on social media. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has also been briefed on the shooting, a defense official said.
"The Army Criminal Investigation Division is on site to ensure that the perpetrator of this atrocity, which is exactly what it is, will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law," Mr. Trump said in the Oval Office Wednesday. "The entire nation is praying for the victims and their families, and hopefully, they'll fully recover, and we can put this chapter behind us, but we're not going to forget what happened."
"Today, a cowardly shooting at Fort Stewart left five brave Soldiers wounded," Hegseth said in a . "Praise God they are all in stable condition. Our prayers are with them, their families, and the entire Fort Stewart community in the aftermath of this attack. We owe profound gratitude to the law enforcement heroes who charged into danger. Swift justice will be brought to the perpetrator and anyone else found to be involved."
Fort Stewart is the largest Army installation east of the Mississippi River, covering nearly 280,000 acres, according to the Defense Department. In the 2020 census, the fort had an estimated population of 8,821 people. Outside the fort's front gate is the small town of Hinesville, Georgia, located about 40 miles southwest of Savannah near the state's Atlantic coast.
"We are keeping the victims, their families, and all those who answer the call to serve in our hearts and prayers, and we ask that Georgians everywhere do the same," Kemp wrote.
