Pearl Harbour Shooting: US Sailor Kills 2 Civilians, Commits Suicide, Officials Lift Lockdown

Two civilian workers were killed when a US sailor opened fire near the dry dock area of the Pearl Harbour Naval Shipyard in Hawaii on Thursday. The two people killed were Department of Defense civilian employees, while a third civilian was wounded but "in stable condition at (an) area hospital," the official said. Official statement by the Pearl Harbour Shipyard said, “The sailor reportedly shot and injured three Department of Defense civilian workers before shooting himself. The incident took place this afternoon at the vicinity of the shipyard’s Dry Dock 2.” The statement also said that the emergency lockdown has now been lifted. “Base security and Navy investigative services are currently investigating. The names of the victims will not be released until the next of kin have been notified,” the statement added. The incident took place at around 2:30 pm (local time). The mass shooting occurred just two days before the 78th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbour Naval Shipyard.

Joint Base Pearl Harbour-Hickam (JBPHH) combines two historic bases into a single joint installation to support both Air Force and Navy missions. Pearl Harbour Naval Station and Hickam Air Force Base have grown up together around the historic port, known as Wai’momi to the native Hawaiians, on Oahu’s south shore. The naval station was constructed shortly after the turn of the 20th Century. Though extremely strategic for the US defence, the shipyard was just a quiet naval base with gorgeous location until the events of December 7, 1941.

On the morning of Sunday December 7, 1941 the plan was unleashed as two waves of 350 aircraft from the Japanese combined fleet, positioned 230 miles north of Oahu, attacked the ships of the Pacific Fleet berthed in the harbor and Army and Navy aircraft parked at various installations around the island, including Hickam Field and Ford Island. America’s military forces were caught completely off guard as plane after plane descended on their unsuspecting targets. In the end, the United States would suffer the loss of 2,403 Sailors, Airmen, Marines, Soldiers and civilians, and the battleships of America’s Pacific Fleet would lie at the bottom of Pearl Harbour.