Shooter at Fort Lee Army base: What we know and don’t know

There was an active shooter at Fort Lee Army base in southeastern Virginia on Monday morning, the base’s public affairs officer confirmed around 9:30 A.M. The base then gave the “all clear” about 30 minutes later, indicating that the danger has passed. The incident appears to have been an attempted suicide.

Here’s a list of what’s confirmed and unconfirmed about the incident. This will be updated as the events unfold on, so keep checking back for details.

— Fort Lee went on lockdown due to an active shooter, first reported at 9:31 A.M.

— The incident involved a female soldier who turned a gun on herself and fired at least one shot in an apparent suicide attempt.

— The shooter was, or began, at the Combined Arms Support Command (CASCOM) building, which is part of the base’s headquarters complex.

— Fort Lee gave the “all clear“ at around 10 A.M., indicating the immediate danger has passed. Also at 10 A.M., about a dozen local police vehicles rushed the area, ”sirens blaring,” according to local media.

— Fort Lee is home to 3,200 military personnel and about as many military family members, with as many as 34,000 people there on a given day. CASCOM, where the incident occurred, is something like a “think tank for military sustainment/logistics,” according to the Washington Post’s Dan Lamothe.

— Two previous military base shootings, at Fort Hood in 2009 and Washington Navy Yard in 2013, killed 13 and 12 people, respectively. They exposed serious problems in military practices for identifying people with potentially dangerous mental health issues.

— The US military has been struggling with a growing suicide epidemic since the 2001 and 2003 invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, which have stretched out deployments and strained families.

— Fort Lee has been working on instituting a warning system in case of an active shooter on base, called Fort Lee Alert, which had not yet been switched on.

— Whether the female shooter tried to shoot others or only herself.

— Whether anyone, including the shooter, was injured.

— How the shooter brought a gun into the CASCOM building, which is an office complex and does not allow open carry of guns.