A gunman who opened fire on the University of Nevada Las Vegas campus on Wednesday, killing three people, is dead after a confrontation with police, according to authorities.
One other victim was hospitalized with a gunshot wound but is expected to survive. Four other people were treated for suspected panic attacks, while two police officers sustained minor injuries in the sweep of the campus that took place after the shooter’s death, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department Sheriff Kevin McMahill said in an evening news conference.
Authorities know the suspect’s identity but will not release it until next of kin are notified, McMahill added. Three law enforcement sources familiar with the matter told NBC News that the gunman was a man in his 60s. A motive in the shooting remains unclear.
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The suspect’s body remained on campus on Wednesday night.
Adam Garcia, the director of university police, said that the shooting had first been reported around 11:45 a.m. in Beam Hall, home to the university’s school of business and other general classes. Two detectives arrived outside the building within minutes, he said, where they “engaged” the gunman in a shoot-out. The suspect was hit and neutralized, Garcia said.
The police director explained that the area around Beam Hall had been densely populated with students at the time the gunfire broke out, and that there could have been many more victims if not for the “heroic” actions of the officers.
Garcia also said that campus would remain closed on Thursday and Friday. A decision was yet to be made about whether it would be closed next week, which is when students were set to begin taking their final exams.
Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman said she had had someone close to her on campus on Wednesday. “Enough is enough,” she said.
A freshman film student at UNLV, who asked to be identified only at Trinity, said she had a class scheduled in Beam Hall today, but missed it because she stayed up late the night prior and wasn’t up for her 45-minute commute to campus.
“I feel very lucky,” she told The Daily Beast. “I wish other people were lucky, too.”
She said she hasn’t been able to reach all of her classmates, but her professors have each emailed to say that they’re personally safe.
“The professors have been locking the doors and turning off all the lights, and everyone’s kind of staying low to the ground,” she said.
There was an additional report of a shooting at the student union on Wednesday afternoon, the university’s police department wrote in an alert, but police say there’s not an ongoing threat. A map of the university shows that the two buildings are adjacent to each other.
Students and local media shared a message blasted out by the university’s emergency alert system, which read, “University Police responding to confirmed active shooter in BEH. This is not a test. RUN-HIDE-FIGHT.”
Scores of students were visibly shaken in the shooting’s aftermath, with one survivor telling ABC News that he feared a shooter could burst into the room he was sheltering in at any moment.
“You’re calling your family, texting your friends like, ‘I love you guys,’ because he could burst through the door at any minute,” the student said.
A staff member who was in Beam Hall just before the attack told The Daily Beast he received an alert of a possible shooting soon after leaving, followed by confirmation and instructions to shelter in space.
Amid the chaos, he said there was confusion about whether more than one suspect was at large, adding to his sense of dread. Law enforcement quickly arrived, the staff member recounted, speaking from inside a barricaded office.
It was “just a massive police response,” he said. “I’ve never seen so many.”
FBI officials and “military-style trucks” were also on site, he said.
Adam Garcia, a spokesperson for the university’s police department, said a re-unification center was opened for families to reconnect with loved ones and to receive updates from authorities.
Dayton University announced that it’d postponed its men’s basketball game against UNLV that was scheduled for Wednesday night in Ohio “due to the tragic events unfolding.”
Garcia announced that UNLV’s main and satellite campuses would be closed for the remainder of Wednesday “out of an abundance of caution.”
Garcia emphasized there is no longer any threat to students, and police conceded in a statement that they have “no idea” what a potential motive behind the shooting might be.
RJ Forbus, 23, is the team photographer for UNLV’s club hockey team. He told The Daily Beast that he counts himself lucky that he wasn’t on campus when shots rang out, but said he’s worried sick about “a lot” of his friends who were.
“It’s very stressful right now,” he said, also noting that roads around the university are filled with police vehicles of every sort.
News of the shooting spread as White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre gave a press briefing. She told reporters had “just” been told about the incident and declined to say much more.
“I just was told about the shooting,” she said. “Obviously, we’re going to continue to monitor what’s currently occurring—I don’t want to get ahead of what local enforcements are probably dealing with at this time,” she said.
The White House added that the shooting comes the same day the second gentleman is scheduled to deliver remarks at the Newtown Action Alliance Foundation’s National Vigil for All Victims of Gun Violence—a vigil that’s been held yearly since 28 people were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut in 2012.
In a statement, President Joe Biden said that the gun violence “is not normal, and we can never let it become normal,” while calling on Republicans in Congress to pass a ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines.
“For all the action we have taken since I’ve been President, the epidemic of gun violence we face demands that we do even more,” the statement said. “But we cannot do more without Congress. Republican lawmakers must join with Democrats in Congress to ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, pass a national red flag law, enact universal background checks, require the safe storage of guns, and advance other commonsense measures that will help stem the tide of gun violence.”
