Shots Fired Near Soldiers Training in Mississippi

Authorities looking for one suspect, in a pickup
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Aug 4, 2015 9:26 PM CDT
Shots Fired Near Soldiers Training in Mississippi
Law officers inspect a vehicle matching the description of the one used in a shooting incident outside Camp Shelby in Hattiesburg, Miss.   (Eli Baylis/The Hattiesburg American via AP)

Authorities searched today for a man who fired gunshots from a vehicle in the vicinity of soldiers at a military facility in Mississippi, although no one was reported wounded, a sheriff said. The shots were fired near a checkpoint where two soldiers were standing guard to the Camp Shelby Joint Forces Training Center, said Perry County Sheriff Jimmy Dale Smith. "This incident occurred along the eastern edge of Camp Shelby. It did not occur on the base," Smith said. Authorities do not have a motive. Mississippi's National Guard said the facility is secure and all personnel accounted for and unharmed.

The large military base south of Hattiesburg is one of the premier training facilities for National Guard troops from across the country, and during the height of the Iraq war was often the last stop for National Guard troops training to go to the Middle East. The base is currently hosting about 4,600 active-duty soldiers, National Guard troops, and reservists from Texas and Mississippi in a summer training exercise. (The exercise appears to be different from the "Jade Helm" military exercise that has agitated conspiracy theorists worried about martial law.)

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