Another US mass shooting leaves 4 dead, multiple injured in Oklahoma

A man armed with a rifle and a handgun killed four people inside a medical building in Tulsa, Oklahoma on Wednesday before fatally shooting himself, police said, in the latest of a series of mass shootings to rattle the United States.

Police arrived at the St. Francis Hospital campus three minutes after receiving a call about the shooting on Wednesday afternoon and followed the sound of gunfire up to the Natalie Building's second floor, Tulsa deputy police chief Eric Dalgleish told reporters.

The officers made contact with the victims and the suspect five minutes later, Dalgleish said.

Police responses have come under increased scrutiny after a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers in a Texas school classroom last week while officers waited outside for nearly an hour.

Asked by reporters whether police had refreshed training or thinking about active shooters after the Uvalde, Texas school shooting, Dalgleish said: "I think that's probably fresh on everyone's minds."

"I will say Tulsa revisits that topic regularly. I was very happy with what we know so far regarding the response of our officers," Dalgleish said.

Wednesday's incident in Tulsa came on the heels of mass shootings that have reignited debates about gun control. Two weeks before the Uvalde shooting, a white gunman killed 10 people at a supermarket in a Black neighborhood in Buffalo, New York.

Police in Tulsa said they were trying to determine the suspect's identity, who they estimated was aged between 35 and 40, and had no details yet on his motive.

This year, about 215 mass shootings, defined as incidents in which at least four people were shot or killed, have already occurred in America, according to the Gun Violence Archive.

Despite hundreds of mass shootings unfolding in America every year, the US Congress has repeatedly failed to pass major gun-control legislation.

There were 19,350 gun homicides in 2020, the latest year which statistics were available, with African Americans accounting for 62% of the total and white people 21%.

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