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01st Jun 2019

At least 12 people have been killed following a mass shooting in Virginia

Alan Loughnane

mass shooting Virginia

The incident happened on Friday.

At least 12 people were killed and several injured on Friday in a mass shooting at a government building in the US state of Virginia.

A public utility employee opened fire with a handgun on co-workers at a municipal building in Virginia on Friday afternoon, killing 12 people and wounding at least four before he was fatally shot by police, authorities said.

Police said an officer was also wounded when a bullet struck his vest.

“We just heard people yelling and screaming at people to get down,” Megan Banton, an administrative assistant in the building, told local television news station WAVY.

“We put the desk up against the door because we didn’t know if they were coming in. We were just hoping that it would be over soon, and then we heard the cops yelling up the steps.”

Virginia Beach Police Chief James Cervera said authorities have determined the suspect’s identity but are not ready to make the name public.

“We will release his name once,” the chief said. “Then he will be forever referred to as ‘the suspect,’ because our focus now is on the dignity and respect of the victims and their families.”

According to CNN, the Virginia Beach Police Department had scheduled a free community workshop for Saturday morning on what to do during mass shootings.

At least 36 people intended to attend the Active Threat Citizen Defence session which was due to take place today, according to the department’s Facebook page.

 

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