Army sergeant in custody after 5 soldiers shot at Fort Stewart; motive remains unknown
Editor's note: This page summarizes news on the shooting at Fort Stewart for Wednesday, Aug. 6. For the latest news on the Fort Stewart shooting, visit Paste BN's coverage for Thursday, Aug. 7.
ATLANTA – A U.S. Army sergeant opened fire at the Fort Stewart military base in Georgia on Aug. 6, injuring five of his colleagues, before he was subdued by fellow soldiers and taken into custody, military officials said.
The shooting occurred shortly before 11 a.m. local time at the suspect's workplace — the 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, according to officials. The incident prompted the base to be briefly placed under lockdown.
Officials did not provide further details on what led to the incident, but Army Brig. Gen. John Lubas said the suspect used a personal handgun, not a military firearm. Fellow soldiers responded swiftly, tackling him to the ground.
"These soldiers, without a doubt, prevented further casualties," Lubas, the commander of the 3rd Infantry Division and Fort Stewart, said at a news conference.
The suspect was identified as Sgt. Quornelius Radford, 28, an automated logistics noncommissioned officer. Soldiers in Radford's field typically manage maintenance or warehouse operations by placing orders and tracking work in Army computer systems.
All five people shot were "in stable condition" and "expected to recover," according to Lubas. Two soldiers who had been shot were transported via ambulance to Memorial Health University Medical Center, a trauma center about an hour's drive away in Savannah. Helicopters were unavailable to assist due to local weather conditions, hospital spokesperson Bryna Gordon said.
Three others were treated at the Winn Army Community Hospital, located on the base. One of them required surgery, according to Lubas.
How the shooting unfolded
Lubas said Radford opened fire shortly before 11 a.m. in an area of the south Georgia installation associated with the 3rd Infantry Division’s 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, a tank unit that returned from a deployment in Europe in the summer of 2024.
The entirety of the fort was locked down shortly thereafter, and Radford was apprehended at 11:35 a.m., the base said in a social media post. Fort Stewart lifted the lockdown for much of the base shortly after midday and declared the post "all clear" just before 2 p.m.
Multiple law enforcement agencies, including the Hinesville Police Department, joined the Army in responding to the incident. The FBI said it was responding to the scene at Fort Stewart and would provide resources or investigative support as requested.
Motive for shooting remains unknown
Military officials said they would not speculate about a motive. According to Lubas, Radford had been stationed at Fort Stewart since 2022 and was not previously deployed to combat.
"I don't have reason to believe that it had anything to do with a training event," the general said. "Other than that, I can't state the motivations for this soldier."
Lubas added that it was not immediately known how the suspect was able to slip his handgun past base security.
Suspected shooter arrested for DUI in May
Radford was recently arrested for driving under the influence, Lubas said, but "that was unknown to his chain of command until the (shooting) occurred."
Georgia state court records show that Radford was arrested in May for driving under the influence in Liberty County, where Fort Stewart is located.
Georgia State Patrol arrested Radford on May 18 for driving under the influence of alcohol, according to Liberty County court records. He was driving a 2021 Nissan Altima with Florida plates.
Radford was also charged with running a red light, court records show. Liberty County court officials did not immediately respond to Paste BN's requests for additional information.
— Michael Loria
Trump: 'Entire nation is praying for the victims and their families'
Both President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth were briefed on the shooting and are monitoring the situation, according to a White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt and Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell.
Speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump called the suspect "horrible" and said the "entire nation is praying for the victims and their families."
Hegseth said in a social media post that he is praying for the victims of the shooting, their families, and the Fort Stewart community.
"Today, a cowardly shooting at Fort Stewart left five brave Soldiers wounded," Hegseth said. "Swift justice will be brought to the perpetrator and anyone else found to be involved."
Shooting sent loved ones on base scrambling for safety
Sadie Mohrbacher was at the theater watching the new Fantastic Four movie when she received a terrifying text message from her sister Wednesday morning: "Active shooter on base. We are on lockdown."
Mohrbacher, 25, rushed out of the theater and called her sister, Paige Siple, who lives on the Fort Stewart military base in Georgia with her husband. Siple said that she was home alone and had locked the doors, closed all the curtains, and taken refuge in an upstairs closet with her dog, Ranger.
Siple’s husband, an active duty soldier who was working on the base, was safe and able to return home from work after the lockdown was lifted for a portion of Fort Stewart.
"It was horrifying," Mohrbacher told Paste BN.
Major on-base shootings in recent decades
Wednesday's shooting is the second in recent years to occur in the 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team's workspace. In December 2022, a fellow soldier shot and killed Sgt. Nathan Hillman at the unit's building complex.
Other military bases have also experienced mass shootings in recent years.
In 2019, a foreign flight training officer from Saudi Arabia killed three Navy sailors and wounded eight more in a shooting at Naval Air Station Pensacola in Florida. Investigators determined the shooter, 2nd Lt. Mohammed Saeed Alshamrani, who died in the attack, harbored jihadist beliefs.
In 2014, an Army specialist stationed at Fort Hood, Texas, killed three soldiers and shot 12 more before dying by suicide. A year earlier, Navy contractor Aaron Alexis killed 12 people at the Navy Yard complex in Washington, D.C.
And in 2009, Army psychiatrist Maj. Nidal Hasan killed 13 people, most of them soldiers, and wounded more than 30 others in a terrorist attack at a deployment medical processing center in Fort Hood, Texas. Hasan was wounded, apprehended, and sentenced to death for the murders.
The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear Hasan’s final appeal in March, confirming his death sentence.
School lockdowns lifted after Fort Stewart shooting
Three schools serving the children of military personnel at Fort Stewart were placed on lockdown Wednesday morning, according to a Department of Defense Education Activity alert. During the lockdown, no one could enter or leave the schools, though teaching continued, the alert said. Around 12:30 p.m. ET, the lockdown was lifted.
In Liberty County, where most of the base is located, two elementary schools and a middle school went into a soft lockdown "out of an abundance of caution," the district said on social media. It was the students’ first day back in school after summer break.
In Appling County, over 20 miles from Fort Stewart, all of the county's schools were placed under a level 1 lockdown before it was lifted around 1 p.m., the school system said on social media.
What is Fort Stewart?
The U.S. Army’s Fort Stewart is a sprawling military installation that includes training and housing facilities in southeast Georgia covering 438 square miles, an area larger than New York City.
The base is home to the Army’s 3rd Infantry Division, and about 10,000 people live there, including active duty troops, family members, and civilian employees, according to the U.S. Department of Defense.
The base’s history traces back to 1940 when it opened as an anti-aircraft training facility. Over the decades, it has steadily grown in size and population.
Today, it serves thousands of active duty military, family members, students, retirees, contractors, and civilian employees.
Contributing: Reuters