Hundreds of patients will be questioned by the FBI after a shooting left two people dead, including the suspected gunman, at a clinic near the Williams Beaumont Army Medical Center in West Texas on Tuesday afternoon, military authorities said.
The shooting occurred shortly after 3:10 p.m. local time at the Veterans Affairs Health Care System clinic, which is part of Fort Bliss in El Paso, said Maj. Gen. Stephen Twitty, declining to provide further details at a press conference on Tuesday, including a possible motive of the shooting, or the relationship between the male shooter and the victim.
While one of the deceased was described to be a victim, the other was identified as the shooter, the Associated Press reported. However it remains unclear whether the gunman killed himself or was killed by someone else.
"Everything is under control and there is no immediate threat to Fort Bliss or the neighboring community," said Twitty, commanding officer of Fort Bliss.
A doctor at the fort's veterans' hospital had been shot and the shooter had apparently shot and killed himself, the El Paso Times, citing the office of Rep. Beto O'Rourke, D-Texas, reported. However a message left for the congressman's office by FoxNews.com was not immediately returned, and a spokesman for Fort Bliss said he was unable to confirm or deny the report.
The hundreds of potential witnesses, many of whom were patients or would-be patients at the clinic, were at the hospital "seeking medical assistance, so we understand the difficulties that this situation presents to them, and we're trying to expeditiously get through those hundreds of witnesses to find out details about this incident," said Douglas Lindquist, special agent in charge of the FBI's El Paso office.
The VA clinic came under scrutiny last year after a federal audit revealed that it had some of the nation's longest wait times for veterans' trying to see a doctor for the first time, according to Fox News.
According to a survey of hundreds of West Texas veterans in 2014, patients waited an average of more than two months to see a Veterans Affairs mental health professional and even longer to see a physician.
Meanwhile, the veterans' hospital remains closed on Wednesday as the FBI carry an ongoing investigation.
"The safety and continued care of our Veterans and the staff will be our focus throughout this situation," the Department of Veterans Affairs said in a statement, adding that they were "deeply saddened by the tragic situation that has occurred in El Paso, and we are actively working with our partners at Fort Bliss to investigate this matter."
