The main gate of the JBSA Chapman Training Annex closed for several hours after security guards exchanged gunfire with shooters early Saturday morning.
There were two incidents —one around 2:15 a.m. and the other around 5 a.m., approximately — according to a preliminary statement by San Antonio police.
Few details on the incident were released by the military. A news release said that the shooters were not known to have a military affiliation.
In a statement to NPR, a JBSA spokesperson said, "We can confirm that there was an off-base shooting incident at the JBSA-Chapman Training Annex main gate that prompted a response from our security forces. We did not have any casualties or injuries. It was not an active threat to the installation. San Antonio Police Department are handling the investigation of the incident."
The San Antonio police added in its own statement that at approximately 2:15 a.m., "[u]nknown suspects fired shots at Air Force Security personnel working the entrance gate to the Lackland AFB/Chapman Training Annex (located at Ray Ellison Blvd and Medina Base Rd). The security personnel stated they heard several shots fired as well as the fired rounds go past them. After this incident, the security personnel added more armed guards as a precaution."
The statement also explained: "Later that same morning, just before 5:00 am, a sedan, stopped on Median Base Rd. east of the same entrance gate to the Lackland AFB/Chapman Training Annex. For a second time, shots were fired at the Air Force Security personnel, however, with the additional security personnel present, multiple Air Force personnel returned fire toward the suspect vehicle. Upon investigation, evidence was located indicating shots were fired from the suspect vehicle's location. This investigation is ongoing."
Traffic to the Chapman training Annex was temporarily rerouted to an entrance on Ray Ellison Boulevard.
A JBSA history explained that the facility hosts courses for airmen "pursuing combat control, pararescue, special reconnaissance and tactical air control party specialties" for the Special Warfare Training Wing.
The facility was originally named the Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland Training Annex, the history explained. But in 2020, it was renamed to honor Master Sgt. John A. Chapman, "an Air Force combat controller who gave his life fighting in Afghanistan in 2002." He trained at Lackland Air Force Base in 1989.
In 2018, Chapman posthumously received the Medal of Honor for actions he took to try to save a wounded colleague in Takur Ghar, Afghanistan, despite his own wounds received in the battle.
"He is the fourth Air Force enlisted Airman to earn the Medal of Honor," the history noted.
