1 injured in scare at air base hospital Wright-Patt continued on A5
Wright-Patterson incident occurred during active shooter alarm Aug. 2.
Nearly two weeks after a scare at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, base officials said Tuesday someone was injured during an active shooter alarm at the military installation’s hospital.
The response came after the Dayton Daily News asked about rumors that someone in the base’s security force was shot during the Aug. 2 alarm.
Base spokeswoman Marie Vanover said a “defender” received a laceration during the incident and returned to work the next day.
“I can confirm that one of our defenders was injured during the incident; however since the investigation is ongoing, I cannot comment on any specifics,” Vanover said.
Col. Tom Sherman, 88th Air Base Wing and installation commander, said everyone on base was safe during a news conference on the day of the alarm. The Dayton Daily News was told numerous times by base officials there were no injuries to report, but Vanover said Tuesday injury information was not available at the time.
Someone from inside Wright-Patterson Medical Center called 911 around 12:40 p.m. Aug. 2.
Base officials have refused to release the 911 call that initiated the incident or describe what led the caller to believe there was an emergency. The Dayton Daily News has filed a formal request for the tape under the federal Freedom of Information Act and is awaiting the Air Force’s official justification for denying the public access to the audio recording.
The call went to the base’s operation center and prompted Wright-Patt’s security forces and fire department to respond. WrightPatt security forces began a systematic sweep and clear of the entire hospital facility, Sherman said during a news conference.
During the sweep, security forces discharged a weapon in an attempt to breach a locked door, Sherman has said. U.S. Rep. Mike Turner, R-Dayton, called the use of a firearm during the sweep “highly unusual and highly questionable” and said it would “absolutely” be part of ongoing discussions about the incident.
Sherman will brief Turner on the incident at 9 a.m. today. Turner requested the briefing in a letter to Sherman on Aug. 3, a day after the incident.
Representatives of area law enforcement who responded to the Aug. 2 alarm will also attend the briefing. Local, state and federal law enforcement including the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives responded to the Aug. 2 shooter scare.
Sherman announced Monday that he ordered a formal board to review the alarm. The board will conduct a “holistic review,” the response to it and lessons that can be learned from it, Vanover said.
An investigation into the discharge of a firearm to breach a locked door during the incident is being conducted solely by the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, according to a base statement. A spokeswoman for the office declined to comment while the investigation is ongoing and said no updates were available as of Monday.
The review and investigation should provide a “road forward” with how to best secure the base and how to respond in future cases, Turner said Tuesday.
“I think we’ll all learn more as those are concluded . ... So we all look forward to that in time and not just having an anecdotal discussion about what occurred but having a professional assessment of what happened at the base,” Turner said.
On Aug. 3, the Dayton Daily News published photos from a woman who said she was inside the Medical Center during the incident. The woman’s photos show what appear to be bullet-sized holes in a wall next to a door.
“Make no mistake, these were real bullets that tore through the wall where we were hiding. That was real drywall we felt flying through the air. That was real terror that we felt,” the woman said on Facebook.
Another photo obtained from the Dayton Daily News appears to show a damaged printer with the Air Force logo on it in the same room that had bullet-sized holes in the wall. Base officials said they could not verify the photos until after an investigation is completed.