Watch CBS News

Sheriff's Office: 2 Dead In Apparent Murder-Suicide At Texas Air Force Base

SAN ANTONIO (CBSNewYork/AP) -- Two people are dead in an apparent murder-suicide at a U.S. Air Force base in San Antonio, Texas, according to authorities.

Deputies responded to reports of an active shooter at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland around 8:40 a.m. Friday morning, Bexar County sheriff's spokesman James Keith said Friday.

"When our deputies arrived they made entry into one of the buildings, they went through several rooms, several hallways looking for a shooter, looking for victims," Keith said.

Two bodies were found inside a room of a building at the base, Keith said.

"Right now we do believe that those two are victims of a murder-suicide," he said. "We do feel like the situation is contained. We don't believe that there is an active shooter."

Watch CBSN Live |

A senior U.S. official said it was an airman shot his commander in an apparent murder-suicide. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to publicly discuss the shooting.

Two handguns were found near the bodies of the men, said Brig. Gen. Robert LaBrutta, who stressed that the shooting was not an act of terrorism.

He declined to identify the two men, saying their families must be notified first. The FBI is assisting in the investigation into the shooting.

The entire base was placed on lockdown.

Three nearby schools were ordered to shelter in place.

Lackland is a key training installation for the Air Force.

The shooting is the latest to occur at a military facility in Texas in the last several years.

In January 2015, an Army veteran and former clerk at the veterans' clinic at Fort Bliss in El Paso shot and killed a psychologist, then committed suicide.

About a year earlier, three soldiers were killed and 16 wounded in an attack at Fort Hood near Killeen by Army Spc. Ivan A. Lopez, who also killed himself.

And in the deadliest attack to occur at a U.S. military installation, 13 people were killed and 31 were wounded in a mass shooting in 2009 at Fort Hood. Nidal Hasan, a former U.S. Army major, was convicted and sentenced to death in that shooting.

(TM and © Copyright 2016 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2016 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

View CBS News In
CBS News App Open
Chrome Safari Continue
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.