TUCSON -- Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson is on lockdown, but a spokesman said no shots have been fired and no one has been hurt.
The Arizona Republic reports a source told them an armed civilian got onto the base and barricaded himself inside a room on the second floor of a building known as the "Old Dorm."
Details remain scarce, however, other than the lockdown is still in effect, meaning no one is allowed on or off the base. In a brief press release issued around 12:30 p.m., base officials said reports of "suspicious activity" caused officials to declare a higher state of security.
Arizona TV station KVOA reports that at around 2 p.m. local time, a bomb squad and other law enforcement units responded to the base.
The base is best known as the boneyard for old military and government airplanes.
Ron Barber, who was on the base Friday morning for a commemoration ceremony for POWs and MIAs, left the base as the lockdown started at 10 a.m. Security directed traffic off the grounds of the base.
He said officials did not say why they were locking down the base.
Barber is U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords' district director. He was shot in the face and leg during the January mass shooting at a Tucson Safeway.
The Pima Air & Space Museum south of the base remains open, but public tours that it does on the base have been canceled, officials said.
At least two schools, Borman Elementary of Tucson Unified School District and Sonoran Science Academy, are on lockdown.
Air Force Staff Sgt. Caitlin Jones said she couldn't confirm details, but said the base has been "reduced to a single point entry because of a potential security situation," and officials were investigating.
At an impromptu press conference at 12:40 p.m., Sgt. Russ Martin said there was an unconfirmed spotting of someone carrying "something that looked like it might have been a weapon" near an old dormitory now being used by a civil engineering squadron.
Martin said rescue vehicles seen entering the base were part of the crisis response put into action when the base was put on lockdown. In what he called "bad timing," he said an ambulance that left the base during the lockdown was carrying a pregnant woman.
Davis-Monthan Air Force Base is hosted by the 355 Fighter Wing and home to six squadrons, with more than 6,000 Airmen and 1,700 civilian personnel. It is located within the city limits of Tucson, about 5 miles east of the downtown area. It was established in 1925.
No comments:
Post a Comment