What we know about Fort Stewart shooting that injured 5 soldiers
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Army barracks at Fort Stewart, Georgia. Photo: Stephen Morton/Getty Images
An Army sergeant is in custody after a shooting at Fort Stewart military base in Georgia that injured five soldiers on Wednesday, officials said.
The big picture: It's believed the suspect used a personal handgun and "not a military weapon" to open fire at the base that briefly went on lockdown, said Brig. Gen. John Lubas, the commanding general of the 3rd Infantry Division, at a Wednesday afternoon briefing.
- The wounded soldiers were hospitalized and three underwent surgery, but Lubas said all were stable and expected to recover.
- Officials named the suspect as Sgt. Quornelius Radford, 28.
What happened at Fort Stewart
Law enforcement was "dispatched to a possible shooting" at Fort Stewart, some 40 miles southwest of Savannah, at 10:56am Wednesday local time, per a Fort Stewart Hunter Army Airfield Facebook post.
- The "shooter was apprehended" at 11:35am, according to the post.
- The base and several Liberty County schools went on lockdown after the shooting report, but these were lifted after the suspect was taken into custody.
Soldiers "saved lives"
Army Secretary Dan Driscoll awarded Meritorious Service Medals on Thursday to six unarmed soldiers for their swift action in tackling the gunman.
- "The heroism shown under fire is something that we should all aspire to know," he said.
- Surgeons at the hospital made clear that those who quickly applied first aid to the wounded soldiers during the incident "certainly saved their lives," Lubas said.
What to know about the suspect
- Radford is an automated logistics sergeant assigned to the 2nd Brigade Combat Team who's never been deployed, according to Lubas.
- He's been interviewed by the Army Criminal Investigation Division and is now in pretrial confinement, Lubas said.
What to know about the investigation
Lubas said he wouldn't "speculate as to any intentions, motives or back stories, given that this is an ongoing investigation."
- The FBI was at Fort Stewart and would "provide any requested resources and/or investigative support," deputy director Dan Bongino said on X.
- The FBI's Savannah office is coordinating with the Army Criminal Investigation Division in response to the incident, the bureau's Atlanta office said on its social media accounts.
What to know about Fort Stewart
The base just outside of Hinesville is the largest Army installation east of the Mississippi River, covering about 280,000 acres over parts of six counties, and home to the 3rd Infantry Division.
- Two armored brigade combat teams there are involved with Transforming in Contact, meant to quickly arm soldiers and test commercially available equipment, per Axios' Colin Demarest.
- Soldiers there have been experimenting with robotics to clear battlefield obstacles, aerial drones to make first contact with an enemy, and tools to better understand and leverage the electromagnetic spectrum that's key to communications and weapons guidance.
- The base has experienced several tragedies in the past year. Two soldiers were killed in a single-vehicle crash while training in January near Fort Stewart and four soldiers from the base died while training in Lithuania.
What they're saying:
- President Trump told reporters the Army Criminal Investigation Division would "ensure that the perpetrator of this atrocity" will be "prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law."
- He added, "The entire nation is praying for the victims and their families and hopefully they'll fully recover, and we can put this chapter behind. But we're not going to forget what happened. We're going to take very good care of this person that did this — horrible person."
Go deeper: 6 unarmed soldiers who tackled Fort Stewart gunman awarded medals
Editor's note: This article has been updated with details of six soldiers being awarded medals.
