Shots Fired For 2nd Day In A Row At Jade Helm Site In Mississippi

Capt. Stetson King, left, and Sgt. William McKitchen, center, help protect their platoon in a Camp Shelby village named, Al Jaffah, during dismounted patrol practice Tuesday, Aug. 15, 2006, in Hattiesburg, Miss. The... Capt. Stetson King, left, and Sgt. William McKitchen, center, help protect their platoon in a Camp Shelby village named, Al Jaffah, during dismounted patrol practice Tuesday, Aug. 15, 2006, in Hattiesburg, Miss. The training helps prepare the soldiers for combat in Iraq with prepared buildings, languages, and sounds to match the culture they will be fighting in. (AP Photo/Hattieburg American, Henrietta Wildsmith) MORE LESS
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For the second day in a row, shots were reportedly fired Wednesday near a Mississippi military facility where part of the “Jade Helm 15” training exercise was expected to take place.

Soldiers training at Camp Shelby in Hattiesburg reported shots fired into the air around 8 a.m. local time, according to a news release obtained by local TV station WJTV. The release noted that the shots were reportedly fired in the same location where two soldiers reported being fired upon on Tuesday.

Authorities said the suspect in Wednesday’s incident was a white male driving a maroon pick-up truck, according to WJTV. The news release noted that is the same suspect description given in Tuesday’s shooting.

The news release described Camp Shelby as being in a “heightened state of alert.” Mississippi Gov. Phil Bryant (R) said in a statement that he’s in communication with the head of the state’s Department of Public Safety to locate and arrest the suspect, according to WJTV.

“The soldiers at Camp Shelby and across the state can and should take appropriate steps to defend themselves as necessary,” Bryant said in the statement. “This is one of the reasons I signed an executive order directing certain National Guard personnel to be armed.”

More than 4,600 National Guard troops are currently on site at Camp Shelby for field exercises. Part of “Jade Helm 15,” the multi-state training exercise that Internet conspiracy theorists posit is actually a cover for the implementation of martial law, is also expected to take place at Camp Shelby this summer.

This post has been updated.

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Notable Replies

  1. The right wing has lost its mind completely. This is why I’ll happily vote Democratic every election. We simply cannot allow these people to take over the country. They’re paranoid, heavily armed, and represent a sizable chunk of the GOP right now.

  2. There is a big difference between shots fired near and shot fired at. At this point I don’t have any confidence in TPM’s reporting.

  3. I can’t wait to see what these shithed “patriots” look like. I suspect there will be beer bellies and beards involved in a non-ironic manner.

  4. Really, time for the military to issue the troops taking part in the exercise live ammo and treat this like a guerrilla attack overseas.

  5. Raise you hand if you’d love to see a story that has this headline:
    Shots Fired at Jade Helm Site. Marines Return Fire. Assume Rednecks Dead.

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