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Shots Fired Again Near ‘Jade Helm 15’ Training Site

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Jonah Bennett Contributor
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For the second day in a row, soldiers stationed at Camp Shelby in Hattiesburg, Miss., were treated to civilian gunfire Wednesday.

The base is among those listed as a Jade Helm 15 training site, the Associated Press reported.

Authorities could not find the whereabouts of the alleged shooter after the first shooting took place Tuesday at 11:35 a.m. As soon as shots were fired, soldiers reported the event to commanding officers, who informed local law enforcement.

The hunt has continued through to Wednesday. Instead of running, the gunman appears likely to have circled back to Camp Shelby, firing his weapon in Perry County, which technically is not part of Campy Shelby premises, Army Times reports.

Officials confirmed that no one was injured in either shooting. It’s also unclear whether the shooter was even aiming at soldiers.

According to descriptions, the shooter is a white male traveling in a pickup truck.

“We are looking for a 90s model maroon pickup with black rims that sites low to the ground and one white male driver,” Perry County Sheriff Jimmy Dale Smith said. Once the individual is found, the charges could be anywhere from simple to aggravated assault.

Local sheriffs immediately questioned two men with a similar truck following the first incident Tuesday, but soon released them from the Perry County Sheriff’s Department without charges.

“I am in close contact with the Commissioner of the Department of Public Safety, and all available personnel and assets will be utilized to locate the suspect and affect an arrest,” Mississippi Governor Phil Bryant said. “The Soldiers at Camp Shelby and across the state can and should take appropriate steps to defend themselves as necessary. This is one of the reasons I recently signed an executive order directing certain National Guard personnel to be armed.”

The recent attack in Chattanooga which resulted in the deaths of four Marines and one sailor has heightened concerns about terrorist activity directed against stateside troops.

Camp Shelby, located 110 miles north of New Orleans, is currently home to 4,600 active-duty troops, as part of the controversial Jade Helm 15 training exercise, which has prompted attention from conspiracy theorists, who believe that the end result of the exercise is martial law. A map extracted from leaked Jade Helm documents only made matters worse, since it labeled several areas as hostile, including Texas, Utah and part of California.

On Monday, the Justice Department announced charges against three North Carolina men for attempting to create explosives and stockpiling weapons and ammunition. The men were reportedly preparing for a full government takeover following the training exercise.

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