Police searching for 2 men who shot at Camp Shelby soldiers

Authorities are searching for two men who shot at a group of US Army soldiers training at Camp Shelby, Mississippi. Local media reported the fire came from a two-door, red Ford Ranger pickup, with “Broken Arrow” written across the top. No one was injured.

The shots were fired around 12:10 p.m. local time, Perry County deputies confirmed to WDAM.

Notably, Camp Shelby is one of the sites that is supposed to feature training drills as part of Jade Helm 15, the Associated Press reported. Jade Helm is a multi-state military drill that has sparked a trove of conspiracy theories from those who believe it to be a secret staging ground for martial law.

Law enforcement has a few good leads on the suspected shooters, Perry County Sheriff Jimmy Dale Smith told the Clarion-Ledger’s Therese Apel. Officials are currently at a residence where a vehicle matches the description of the Ford pickup truck witnesses spotted at Camp Shelby.

The vehicle was located near New Augusta, WDAM’s Ryan Moore tweeted.

The search for the red truck involved in the drive-by resumed later in the afternoon as more information has came in from the Camp Shelby soldiers, Smith told Moore. The two men whom the Mississippi Highway Patrol had brought in for questioning were released.

Camp Shelby is hosting the National Commission on the Future of the Army to Mississippi as it conducts a field hearing on restructuring the Army’s active-duty and reserve component force structures. The independent, congressionally mandated panel arrived at the training facility on Tuesday.

It is also hosting about 500 active-duty soldier from Texas and a National Guard unit from northern Mississippi for a joint exercise with 4,600 Army, Army Reserve and National Guard troops, AP reported.

"This is the first time that we've had this kind of exercise at Camp Shelby," Major General Augustus L. Collins, adjutant general of Mississippi and commanding general of both the Mississippi Army and Air Force National Guard, said on Monday.

The training exercises, called Exportable Combat Training Capability, began in mid-July and will continue through mid-August. Civilians were able to watch some of the drills on Friday, but there have not yet been any reports of non-military members in the vicinity of Tuesday’s shooting.

Members of the Forrest County Sheriff's Department and the US Forestry Commission are assisting in the search for the two men.

Hattiesburg Police Chief Anthony “Stoney” parker was sworn in as the city’s top cop on Monday.

Camp Shelby is a 134,000-acre National Guard training center in Hattiesburg. It is also the location of the Mississippi Armed Forces Museum, where a new exhibit on state Representative Mac Huddleston, who flew helicopters in the Vietnam War, opened on Wednesday.