JASPER, Ga. (AP) — There was a shooting Tuesday at a Department of Veterans Affairs clinic in a small town at the foot of the Blue Ridge mountains in Georgia, and the gunman was shot and killed, police said.
A Veterans Affairs employee was taken by helicopter to a hospital after the gunfire Tuesday afternoon, VA spokesman Peter Kasperowicz said.
Jasper police responded to the scene around 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, the city said in a statement. Outside the VA clinic, the officers confronted the gunman, who was shot and killed, authorities said.
The gunman was from the Jasper area, Jasper Police Chief Matt Dawkins told reporters at the scene. But details about him were not immediately released.
“We don’t know what led up to it,” Dawkins said.
Jimmy Mooney was shopping at a nearby Goodwill store when he heard gunfire.
“We heard the gunshots going off,” he said. “There was probably 17 of us inside the Goodwill that was shopping, and, they had come and told us to get in the back of the store and during that time we could see the officers running down the hill. Gunshots started going off.”
The Jasper police chief said the Federal Bureau of Investigation will be investigating the shooting along with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
When asked about the suspect’s background, a Pickens County sheriff’s spokesman said he did not know whether he had a military background.
The clinic will remain closed for the rest of the week, Kasperowicz said.
“VA is rescheduling appointments as necessary and ensuring Veterans and staff have access to counseling and chaplain services in the wake of this tragic event,” he said in an email.
The VA’s Office of Inspector General will assist local authorities in the investigation, he added.
The outpatient clinic in Jasper offers services that include primary care and specialty health services, including laboratory, telehealth and mental health care, according to its website.
Jasper, a town of about 5,000 people, is roughly 60 miles (97 km) north of downtown Atlanta. Signs on a highway through the town call it Georgia’s “First Mountain City” as the Blue Ridge Mountains come into view as motorists from Atlanta head north.
Photos from the local newspaper, the Pickens Progress, showed more than a half-dozen law enforcement officers responding to the scene, wearing tactical vests near a strip mall in the town.
The clinic opened in the summer of 2020, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs said in a news release announcing its grand opening.
“The new Pickens County VA Clinic will increase access and ensure that our Veterans continue to receive the high-quality health care that they have earned and deserve closer to their home,” officials said in the release.
___
Martin reported from Kennesaw, Georgia.