(Updated, 7:28 pm — Little Rock police identified the soldier who was killed by a shooter at a Little Rock, Ark. military-recruiting center as 24-year old William Long of Conway, also in Arkansas, according to the Associated Press.

The man arrested as the shooter was said to have "political and religious motives," according to Little Rock Police Chief Stuart Thomas. The original post is below.)

By Frank James

Tragic story today out of Little Rock, Ark. with the report of two young soldiers being shot at a military recruiting office, with one dead at the time of this posting.

mil recruiting office
AP Photo/Danny Johnston

Police inspect scene of a fatal shooting outside a military recruitment office in a Little Rock, Ark., shopping center Monday, June 1, 2009.

Officials arrested a suspect but haven't released his name or those of the victims. Nor is there anything about a possible motive.

According to news reports, the two soldiers were freshly minted, just out of Army Basic Camp, and were at the recruiting station as part of an Army program which sends new soldiers back to their communities to talk up Army life.

An excerpt from the Associated Press:

Lt. Col. Thomas F. Artis of the Oklahoma City Recruiting Battalion, which oversees the Little Rock office, said the victims had just completed basic training and were not regular recruiters. He said they were serving two weeks in the Little Rock office.

As part of the Hometown Recruiting Assistance Program, the soldiers were sent to "talk to friends, folks in the local area. They can show the example, 'Here's where I was, and here is where I am,"' Artis said.

Artis said neither of the soldiers had been deployed for combat.

The irony, of course, is that many parents of new soldiers worry about them being sent to Iraq or Afghanistan, not Little Rock.