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2 Dead in Murder-Suicide at UCLA

As UCLA students made their way to class Wednesday morning, their stress about upcoming final exams and papers was interrupted by a campus-wide lockdown after an apparent murder-suicide in the heart of campus.

According to a UCLA press release, university police responded to a 911 call around 10 a.m. regarding an active shooter in the engineering building Boelter Hall.

The 911 call resulted in the rapid response of not only university police, but hundreds of law enforcement officials including the Los Angeles Police Department, the LA Fire Department, the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms.

After Boelter Hall cleared by law enforcement, Los Angeles police Chief Charlie Beck confirmed that the shooting took place in a small office in the engineering building and that the shooter was one of the two deceased parties.

According to a Los Angeles Times article, a law enforcement official told the LA 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.”

Students and faculty members identified the professor as William S. Klug. UCLA officials later confirmed his identity.

Klug was an associate mechanical and aerospace engineering professor who also headed the Klug Research Group in computational biomechanics, according to his biography on the UCLA website. He was the father of two young children and earned his master’s degree at UCLA in 1999.

The identity of the shooter has not yet been released.

LAPD spokesman Capt. Andy Neiman announced that a note was found near one of the victims. At this time, LAPD has not confirmed whether the note has an actual connection to the crime scene.

At the time of the 911 call, a BruinAlert was issued, alerting all students, faculty, and staff via text message and email that the campus was on lockdown until further notice. The lockdown was lifted around 12:30 p.m.Screen Shot 2016-06-01 at 3.35.35 PM

Cal State Long Beach sophomore Ishoah Gramajo said that UCLA’s shooting was too close to home.

“UCLA’s not that far, so that’s crazy,” said the English major. “[School shootings] are almost typical at this point, which is sad.”

Gramajo then said that gun violence on campuses is becoming so common, he knows it could happen anytime at anyplace.

“It could happen at our school,” Gramajo said. “I work at the bookstore, [and] there’s definitely been times where I’ve been like ‘definitely if there was [a shooter on campus] this would be my exit or this is what I’d do.’”

UCLA Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Scott Waugh commended the response time and cooperation of of the local law enforcement.

“I also want to the thank the all law enforcement agencies of southern California who reacted so quickly to help secure the scene and help us prevent further damage to the campus,” Waugh said during a news briefing. “We’ll learn from this event and we’ll learn how we need to work as cooperatively as possible with the different law enforcement agencies to make sure that we can handle these kinds of situations effectively and safely for the students, faculty and staff.”

According to Everytown Gun Safety, an advocacy group, the shooting at UCLA is the 186th school shooting in the U.S. since the Sandy Hook school shooting in 2012. By that count, a gun has been fired at a school almost once a week since then.

Screen Shot 2016-06-01 at 3.52.22 PM“This horrific event, at an institution dedicated to learning and mutual understanding, reminds us once again of the fragility of a peaceful society,” said Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti. “Thankfully, the campus is safe now- but I am heartbroken by the sight of SWAT teams running down avenues normally filled with students… I want to commend the entire UCLA community for its extraordinary grace and calm on a traumatic morning.”

During a press conference held immediately after the shooting, Waugh announced that UCLA’s classes were canceled for the rest of the day, as well as all evening programs.  He said that the normal campus operations would resume Thursday morning and finals will continue next week.

However, all engineering classes have been canceled for the remainder of the week.

“Faculty, staff and students should show up tomorrow and go through their regular routines and complete the quarter as planned,” Waugh said.

UCLA is making counseling services available to students, faculty, and staff over the course of the next few days.

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