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Police Say Two Dead After Apparent Murder-Suicide on UCLA Campus

LA's police chief said the shooting took place in an engineering building, and that officers recovered a gun along with what appeared to be a suicide note.
Photo by Nick Ut/AP

Two people are dead after an apparent murder-suicide on the campus of the University of California, Los Angeles on Wednesday.

The shootings reportedly occurred in the area around Boelter Hall, one of the school's engineering buildings. The entire campus in LA's Westwood neighborhood was placed on lockdown, and students received messages on their phones about a possible active shooter situation. People on the campus were instructed to go to a "secure location" and stay there.

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Two hours after shots were first fired, Charlie Beck, chief of the Los Angeles Police Department, told reporters at press conference that "the campus is now safe."

"This issue that occurred has been contained," Beck said.

Beck says the shooting took place in a small office in an engineering building, and that police recovered a gun along with what appeared to be a suicide note.

A law enforcement official told the Los Angeles Times that "based on the appearances of the deceased, police believe that a professor has been shot by someone young enough to be a student who then turned the gun on himself."

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Many police officers — some in SWAT gear — responded to the shooting, including agents from the FBI and ATF, as well as members of the Los Angeles Fire Department, and campus cops from both UCLA and nearby Santa Monica College, according to James Herren, UCLA's police chief.

Fearing that the shooter may have still been on the loose, officers went room to room evacuating students in small groups of five or six. Students were made to walk with their hands up before kneeling down and and being patted down by police for possible weapons.

The Daily Bruin, UCLA's student newspaper, reported that the suspected shooter was white, male, around six feet tall, and wearing black trousers with a black jacket.

The atmosphere was tense, even on the opposite side of the sprawling 419-acre UCLA campus. Chloe Pan, a second-year undergraduate and RA of her campus dorm, told VICE News that she woke up to news of the shooting. "There's a strong sense of both chaos and solidarity," Pan said. "My entire Facebook feed is hundreds of posts confirming they're safe or trying to check in. There are unconfirmed rumors on social media. A lot of people who are uncertain what's going on and how many shooters."

"It's been going on for more than two hours," Pan added. "People are worried about when it's going to stop."

Most students on campus will begin their final exams next week, but Pan said some exams were scheduled earlier.

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