(Newswire.net — June 1, 2016) — On Wednesday morning at the University of California, Los Angeles, two people have been killed in a shooting inside the engineering IV building. According to the latest police statement, it was a murder-suicide.
The shooting took place shortly before 10am at Boelter Hall. Los Angeles police officers arrived quickly and began searching for the shooter. They ordered the students to stay locked in their rooms for security reasons.
Students also received texts and emails from the University’s Emergency Management BruinAlert system, advising them to go to a secure location and stay on lockdown. Several surrounding elementary and middle schools in the area were also placed on lockdown as a precaution.
Police found two dead inside a small office though it was unclear if the two men were employees, students or visitors. Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck said that the police found a weapon, and no suspects remain at large.
A note was found near the dead bodies, but LAPD Chief Charlie Beck said they would not elaborate if it was a suicide note.
According to the police report, UCLA is now safe and the students were taken off lockdown around 12:20pm. Classes were canceled for the day, but are expected to resume Thursday.
“There is no continuing threat to UCLA’s campus,” LAPD Chief said, reports CNN.
Eyewitnesses described that the situation at the UCLA campus like a scary movie, some of them wrote on Twitter and other social media.
“Sitting under desk with door locked and lights off during my last ever class at #UCLA because of campus shooting”, wrote Tom Jackson on Twitter.
Witnesses claimed the shooter was a student, a 6 foot tall white male wearing all black.
Student Teddi Mattox told CNN that she was in the cafeteria with about 100 other students when the shooting occurred. She described that after the alert, a woman said this is not a joke, and told everyone to get to the back of the dining hall as they have to stay away from the windows, leaving some very frightened, crying and shaking.
At the same time, many students did not know what was going on while the police picked them up and sent them to safety. UCLA is a large University, with more than 43,000 registered students.
This is the first time in 26 years that a shooting has occurred at the UCLA campus. In February 1990, a man shot two UCLA Medical Center workers, killing one and wounding the other. It was the first homicide on campus grounds in 20 years.
This latest shooting happened just a week before the final exams before the summer, and Los Angeles police will lead the investigation.