Three people are dead after a shooting this morning at a UPS facility near Birmingham-Shuttlesworth airport. According to Birmingham Police Chief A.C. Roper, the gunman is among the deceased. Listen to WBHM for more on this story throughout the day.
First statement from Chief A.C. Roper:
“At approximately 9:21 a.m. this morning, the Birmingham Police department received multiple calls regarding an active shooter here at the UPS business. Patrol units responded quickly. They rallied up and made an entry into the building. They were able to clear the building.”
“And, of course, during the shooting, multiple employees exited the facility. Officers, once they arrived and entered the building, located three deceased people in the business. It appears that it’s the shooter, who is still wearing his UPS uniform, and two other employees.”
“At this time we have no information regarding the motivation that led to this incident, so we’ll be digging into the work history, into the background — also talking to family members and these other employees who may be able to share some information about what caused this incident today.”
“We’ll be transporting multiple witnesses to a different location to provide counseling support, but also to provide investigators to start that process of interviewing them to determine what they knew, what they saw, and what they can share with us that will help us figure out what exactly happened here today.”
“There are no other injuries. We do have people who are extremely upset about what they saw today and what they witnessed, so we want to make sure we support them.”
“We cannot release the identities of the deceased at this time, pending the notification of their next of kin. But we’re working through all that, so it’ll be a very methodical investigation — even though we have a pretty good idea about what transpired inside the business.”
“So at this time the business is locked down. We’ll be grabbing the evidence processing that scene, interviewing witnesses, in a very methodical and comprehensive fashion to make sure we get a good picture of what led up to today and what we can do in the future to prevent it.”
For a 1:54-p.m. update from Al.com, click here.