JASPER, Ga. (AP) — There was a shooting Tuesday at a Department of Veterans Affairs clinic in a small town at the foot of the Blue Ridge mountains in Georgia, and the gunman was shot and killed, police said.
A Veterans Affairs employee was taken by helicopter to a hospital after the gunfire Tuesday afternoon, VA spokesman Peter Kasperowicz said.
Jasper police responded to the scene around 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, the city said in a statement. Outside the VA clinic, the officers confronted the gunman, who was shot and killed, authorities said.
The gunman was from the Jasper area, Jasper Police Chief Matt Dawkins told reporters at the scene. But details about him were not immediately released.
“We don’t know what led up to it,” Dawkins said.
Jimmy Mooney was shopping at a nearby Goodwill store when he heard gunfire.
“We heard the gunshots going off,” he said. “There was probably 17 of us inside the Goodwill that was shopping, and, they had come and told us to get in the back of the store and during that time we could see the officers running down the hill. Gunshots started going off.”
The Jasper police chief said the Federal Bureau of Investigation will be investigating the shooting along with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.
When asked about the suspect’s background, a Pickens County sheriff’s spokesman said he did not know whether he had a military background.
The clinic will remain closed for the rest of the week, Kasperowicz said.
“VA is rescheduling appointments as necessary and ensuring Veterans and staff have access to counseling and chaplain services in the wake of this tragic event,” he said in an email.
The VA’s Office of Inspector General will assist local authorities in the investigation, he added.
The outpatient clinic in Jasper offers services that include primary care and specialty health services, including laboratory, telehealth and mental health care, according to its website.
Jasper, a town of about 5,000 people, is roughly 60 miles (97 km) north of downtown Atlanta. Signs on a highway through the town call it Georgia’s “First Mountain City” as the Blue Ridge Mountains come into view as motorists from Atlanta head north.
Photos from the local newspaper, the Pickens Progress, showed more than a half-dozen law enforcement officers responding to the scene, wearing tactical vests near a strip mall in the town.
The clinic opened in the summer of 2020, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs said in a news release announcing its grand opening.
“The new Pickens County VA Clinic will increase access and ensure that our Veterans continue to receive the high-quality health care that they have earned and deserve closer to their home,” officials said in the release.
Martin reported from Kennesaw, Georgia.
Emergency vehicles are seen outside a Department of Veterans Affairs clinic in Jasper, Ga., Tuesday, March 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilie Megnien)
Emergency vehicles are seen outside a Department of Veterans Affairs clinic in Jasper, Ga., Tuesday, March 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilie Megnien)
Emergency vehicles are seen outside a Department of Veterans Affairs clinic in Jasper, Ga., Tuesday, March 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilie Megnien)
Arizona on Tuesday became the first state to file criminal charges against Kalshi, accusing the prediction market company of operating an illegal gambling business within its borders, a significant escalation in the fight to regulate the popular platform.
The 20-count charging document accuses Kalshi of accepting bets on political outcomes, college sporting competitions and individual player performance in violation of Arizona's gambling laws. The state prohibits operating an unlicensed wagering business and bans betting on elections.
“Arizona will not be bullied into letting any company place itself above state law,” said Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes.
The criminal case marks a new front in a high-stakes legal battle over whether prediction markets should be subject to the same rules as gambling companies.
President Donald Trump’s administration has thrown its support behind the multibillion-dollar prediction market industry, further amplifying a state-versus-federal fight for regulatory control. The outcome could have sweeping implications for how sports betting — which makes up roughly 90% of Kalshi’s trading volume — is regulated in the U.S.
Kalshi insists it’s a financial marketplace rather than a gambling operation and should only have to answer to federal regulators with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. The agency under Trump agrees it has exclusive oversight.
Trump’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr., is a strategic adviser for Kalshi. And the Republican president’s social media platform, Truth Social, is launching its own cryptocurrency-based prediction market called Truth Predict.
Elisabeth Diana, a spokesperson for Kalshi, dismissed the Arizona charges as “meritless” and accused the state of trying to circumvent federal court.
Kalshi sued Arizona, Utah and Iowa in attempts to stop anticipated state action against the platform.
But U.S. District Judge Michael Liburdi in Arizona, a Trump appointee, denied Kalshi's request for a temporary block on Tuesday and ordered the company to demonstrate why the case should be in federal court given the new state charges.
At least nine other states have taken some form of legal action against Kalshi, and Utah’s Republican governor has pledged to sign a bill that could undercut the company's business in the state.
So far, the outcomes have been mixed. Federal and state judges in Nevada and Massachusetts, respectively, issued early rulings in favor of states looking to ban Kalshi and its competitor Polymarket from offering sports betting in their states, while federal judges in New Jersey and Tennessee have ruled in favor of Kalshi. The Nevada lawsuit was remanded to state court.
CFTC chairman Michael Selig said the legal fight between Arizona and Kalshi is a jurisdictional issue and is “entirely inappropriate as a criminal prosecution.”
The state argues Kalshi is a gambling operation that brands itself as a marketplace. But the company says its product is different because customers engage in “swaps” between one another instead of betting against the “house.”
Kalshi operates by allowing customers to buy and sell “Yes” or “No” contracts tied to the probable outcome of an event. Anyone with a smartphone can wager on everything from whether it will snow in Miami to whether Trump will say a certain buzzword in a speech. Contracts are typically priced between 1 cent and 99 cents, which roughly translates to the percentage of customers who believe that event will happen.
The charges in Arizona were filed just days before the start of the NCAA men’s and women’s basketball tournaments, one of the busiest periods of the year for prediction markets and sportsbooks.
Kalshi announced a $1 billion perfect bracket challenge on Monday without mentioning the NCAA or March Madness, a pair of NCAA trademarks.
An NCAA spokesperson, Saquandra Heath, said Tuesday the organization remains concerned about “unprotected prediction markets that pose a threat to competition integrity and student-athlete safety.”
Associated Press sports writer Jay Cohen in Chicago contributed to this report.
FILE - Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes speaks at the Arizona State Prison, March 19, 2025, in Florence, Ariz. (AP Photo/Darryl Webb, File)
