United States: a man opens fire in a hospital and leaves several victims, police announce his death

2023-11-18 06:01:12

A new tragedy hits the United States. Authorities in the US state of New Hampshire announced Friday evening the death of a suspect who allegedly opened fire in a public hospital and caused “several victims”, without specifying whether they were killed or injured.

“The crisis situation at the New Hampshire hospital has been contained (…) The suspect has died,” announced on X (ex-Twitter) the security and emergency services of this rural state located in the northeast . State police, Concord police and emergency responders responded to the scene.

The situation at New Hampshire Hospital has been contained. The scene remains active. The suspect is deceased. pic.twitter.com/fYGDgLxcOG

— NH Homeland Security and Emergency Management (@NH_HSEM) November 17, 2023

A few minutes earlier, the local police had reported on “This afternoon there was an incident at New Hampshire Hospital, which was contained,” Gov. Chris Sununu said Friday evening.

15,000 deaths by firearms

Excluding suicides, more than 15,000 people have died in gun violence since the start of the year in the country, according to the Gun Violence Archive (GVA) association. Recent American history is indeed punctuated by killings, with no place in daily life seeming safe, from the business to the church, from the supermarket to the discotheque, from the public highway to public transport. common. But, despite the mobilization of more than a million demonstrators, the United States Congress has not adopted an ambitious law, many elected officials being under the influence of the powerful National Rifle Association (NRA), the first American gun lobby.

In fact, in a country where the possibility of owning a firearm is considered by millions of Americans as a fundamental constitutional right, the only recent legislative advances remain marginal, such as the generalization of criminal and psychiatric background checks above all. purchase of weapons. The worst killing in recent years occurred at the end of October in the neighboring state of Maine: armed with a semi-automatic rifle, a man opened fire in a bowling alley in Lewiston, then around ten minutes later, in a bar-restaurant in this town of 36,000 inhabitants, killing 18 people and injuring 13. He then committed suicide.