4 deaths at Tulsa hospital add to nation's gun carnage

TULSA, Oklahoma－A gunman killed at least four people on Wednesday at a hospital in Tulsa, Oklahoma, police said－the latest mass shooting to convulse the United States.

The suspect, who was armed with a rifle and a handgun during his attack on the Saint Francis hospital campus, died by suicide, police said.

"Right now we have four civilians that are dead, we have one shooter that is dead, and right now we believe that is self-inflicted," Tulsa Police Department Deputy Chief Eric Dalgleish told reporters.

He said officers responded immediately after emergency calls came in reporting that a gunman had stormed into the second floor of the Natalie Building, which houses a clinic on the Saint Francis campus.

Police "were hearing shots in the building" when they arrived, according to Dalgleish, who said officers then searched floor by floor, room by room while trying to clear the building during what authorities described as an active shooter situation.

Earlier, police Captain Richard Meulenberg said officers were treating the scene as "catastrophic", with "several" people shot and "multiple injuries".

It was not clear how many other people might have been injured.

Dalgleish said the entire assault－from the moment emergency calls came in to the time officers engaged the shooter－lasted about four minutes.

Dalgleish also noted that the suspect had yet to be identified.

US President Joe Biden has been briefed on the shooting, the White House said in a statement, adding that the administration has offered support to Tulsa officials.

Elizabeth Buchner, a legal assistant who lives behind the building where the shooting occurred, said she rushed out of her house when she heard helicopters and a loud commotion coming from the direction of the hospital.

"It was the most law enforcement I've ever seen at one place in my entire life," said Buchner, 43.

But she expressed frustration at how such tragedies keep happening in the US.

"We deserve better than this," she said. "These things are preventable, and it's time to wake up and address this."

The shooting is the latest in a string of deadly assaults by gunmen that have rocked the US over the past month.

The spate of recent gun violence across the country has led to Democratic leaders amplifying their calls for greater restrictions on guns, while Republicans are emphasizing more security at schools.

The divide mirrors a partisan split that has stymied action in Congress and many state capitols over how best to respond to a record-high number of gun-related deaths in the US.

Since January, there have been 12 shootings in which four or more people have been killed, according to a database kept by The Associated Press, USA TODAY and Northeastern University.

Agencies Via Xinhua