Air Force officials on Saturday identified the two airmen killed in an apparent murder-suicide at a U.S. air base in San Antonio Texas.
Tech. Sgt. Steven D. Bellino, 41, and Lt. Col. William A. Schroeder, 39, were found dead Friday around 8:50 a.m. inside an office of the 342nd Training Squadron Headquarters at the Medina Training Annex of Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, Brig. Gen. Robert LaBrutta said in a statement.
LaBrutta called the death of the airman and his commanding officer a "workplace violence incident." According to a senior U.S. official, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity, Bellino targeted Schroeder before turning the gun on himself.
"The 37th Training Wing mourns the loss of our Airmen and family members," said Brig. Gen. Trent H. Edwards, the Commander of the 37th Training Wing where both members were assigned. "Our primary focus at this time is to take care of the family and the men and women who are grieving our losses. A tragedy of this type is felt by each and every member, but we will pull together to help our own."
The FBI said Saturday Bellino was a Special Agent for the agency and resigned in May 2013 after less than two years. It did not say why Bellino resigned and added that "because this is an ongoing investigation, please direct further inquiries to the Air Force Office of Special Investigations (AFOSI).”
Meanwhile, investigators from the Air Force and FBI are tracing two Glock firearms found near the bodies of the two men inside a building that holds classrooms and offices.
Military-issued and personal firearms are heavily restricted on the base and it's not clear whether the gunman was authorized to have a weapon or how he managed to get inside while armed, according to Dan Hawkins, a spokesman for the base.
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"Allowing everyone to carry personal firearms would make the job of our security professionals much more difficult," Hawkins said. He also said security officers must be notified if a personal weapon is being brought onto the installation and the firearm must be registered, in addition to other requirements.
The shooting prompted a lockdown of Lackland and surrounding schools for more than an hour.
Friday's shooting is the latest to occur at a military facility in Texas in the last several years.
In January 2015, an Army veteran and former clerk at the veterans' clinic at Fort Bliss in El Paso shot and killed a psychologist, then killed himself. About a year earlier, three soldiers were killed and 16 wounded in an attack at Fort Hood near Killeen by Army Spc. Ivan A. Lopez, who also killed himself.
And in the deadliest attack to occur at a U.S. military installation, 13 people were killed and 31 were wounded in a mass shooting in 2009 at Fort Hood. Nidal Hasan, a former U.S. Army major, was convicted and sentenced to death in that shooting.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
