One patient at Sentara Princess Anne Hospital was being picked up by helicopter and transferred to a trauma center at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital, he said. Details on their conditions were not immediately available.
“This day will not define Virginia Beach,” a City Council member, Aaron Rouse, said at the news conference. “We will show the strength of our city.”
Another Council member, Barbara Henley, told The Virginian-Pilot that she was pulling up to City Hall, when she heard police sirens and saw police cars.
“I thought it was an accident,” Ms. Henley said.
She said she learned there had been a shooting and heard a male voice shout, “Get down!”
People scattered.
“I was scared to death,” she said.
“This is a tragic day for Virginia Beach and our entire Commonwealth,’’ Gov. Ralph Northam of Virginia said on Twitter. “My heart breaks for the victims of this devastating shooting, their families, and all who loved them. I am on my way to Virginia Beach now and will be there within the hour.”
The shooting in Virginia Beach, whose population is about 450,000, comes on the heels of two mass shootings at educational institutions in recent weeks.
On April 30 — the last day of classes — two students were killed at the University of North Carolina Charlotte and four others injured after a gunman opened fire in a classroom.
On May 7, at the STEM School Highlands Ranch in Colorado, one student was killed and eight others wounded.
In both cases, a student sacrificed his life to prevent more bloodshed by barreling toward the gunman.
Workplaces have also regularly been the scene of tragedy. In February, an angry worker stormed through a suburban Chicago factory and shot several co-workers, leaving five dead and six other people wounded.
