Los Angeles: A murder-suicide killed two people at the University of California’s Los Angeles campus on Wednesday, prompting a lockdown and a massive security deployment at the facility.
According to Los Angeles police chief, Charlie Beck, both the victims were found with gunshot wounds in an office on campus. At least three shots were fired and a gun was found at the scene.
Beck said the situation has been contained and the campus is safe. The officer, however, didn’t confirm that the whether the two killed men were students, employees or visitors.
"At about 10:00 this morning a homicide and a suicide occurred in the engineering facility... of the UCLA campus on the south side. It appears it is entirely contained," Beck said.
University officials said that the shooting happened shortly before 10 am in Boelter Hall, which is part of the Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science. Shortly, the entire campus was placed under lockdown.
Police said that they were still piecing together what prompted the deadly incident. "There is evidence there could be a suicide note but we don't know at this point. Tragically so many of these active shooter situations end like this," Beck added.
The shooting prompted a campus-wide lockdown, where students are preparing for final exams. All university classes were cancelled for the day. The lockdown was lifted shortly after noon.
"We are in the process of releasing the campus back to the students. They are in their finals. This is a very stressful time for them, and we're trying to alleviate that," Beck said
University's vice chancellor Scott Waugh said that classes would resume as normal today and next week's final exams would not be disrupted.
"We want to resume normal operations as quickly as possible. Faculty, staff and students should show up tomorrow and go through their regular routines and complete the quarter as planned," he said.
According to university’s website, some 43,000 students are enrolled at the massive UCLA campus.
With Agency Inputs
