Officials at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Fla. said one of the two people stopped at the base’s Bayshore gate Monday night is an active duty military member who currently has AWOL status.
The man and woman were stopped because they presented fraudulent identification to the security guard at the gate, Vice Commander Col.
Dave Cohen of the 6th Air Mobility Wing said in a Tuesday morning news conference. An inspection of their vehicle turned up several weapons and military-style clothing.
The man is currently AWOL from his military unit, Cohen said, though he did not identify the unit or branch of the military. The woman appears to have no military affiliation at this point.
MacDill officials are speaking with the male suspect’s military command, but have not released any further information about where he may have been stationed last. It is not certain if the man had ever been at MacDill before.
Cohen described both suspects as Caucasians in their 20’s who are American citizens. Their names have not been released and they are still in custody, speaking with investigators. Their relationship to one another has not been determined, nor has a motive for the incident.
“We do have some of the information,” Cohen said at the news conference.
“Putting all the pieces of this puzzle together has been a little difficult. Some of it we are not releasing because it is an ongoing investigation … We had people arrive at our gate, with weapons, with unknown intentions, and so we are taking a very deliberate, very specific by-the-books approach to deal with this particular issue.”
Once the gate security deemed the suspects’ identification to be fake, around 5pm (local time) Monday, the two were asked to get out of the car while it was searched. Robots were used to determine that there were no explosives in the small blue SUV.
Security inspecting the vehicle found three handguns and three rifle-style firearms. The weapons are believed to be commercially available but were of military style. Ammunition was also found in the vehicle, but “not a tremendous amount,” Cohen said.
Charges against the suspects are being discussed with the U.S. Attorney General’s office and the military community, Cohen said.
Cohen also said there was no indication that the incident was related to terrorism.