UCLA murder-suicide: Shock, fear as cops swarm campus

Hundreds of heavily armed officers swarmed the sprawling UCLA campus Wednesday following a shooting that forced thousands to barricade themselves in classrooms and offices, some using belts and chairs to secure doors, until authorities determined the gunman and the professor he shot were dead.

About two hours after the first 911 call came in around 10 am, with the center of campus still saturated with officers, Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck said it was a murder-suicide and declared the threat over.

Police officers as they leave the scene. (AP Photo)

Two men were dead, and authorities found a gun and what might be a suicide note.

William S. Klug, a professor of mechanical engineering, was gunned down in an engineering building office, according to a law enforcement official.

The shooter hasn't been identified.

A Los Angeles Metro Police officer stands watch on the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) campus. (Reuters Photo)

The response to the shooting was overwhelming: Teams of officers in helmets and bulletproof vests looking for victims and suspects ran across the normally tranquil campus tucked in the city’s bustling west side. Some with high-powered rifles yelled for bystanders to flee.

Groups of officers stormed into buildings that had been locked down and cleared hallways as police helicopters hovered overhead.

Police officers conduct a search at the UCLA

Advised by university text alerts to turn out the lights and lock the doors where they were, many students let friends and family know they were safe in social media posts. Some described frantic evacuation scenes, while others wrote that their doors weren’t locking and posted photos of photocopiers and foosball tables they used as barricades.

A student at the UCLA peers around the corner of a hallway in the School of Education building on campus. (Reuters Photo)

Police officers conduct a search on people at UCLA. (Reuters Photo)

Police officers search corridors and rooms at UCLA. (Reuters Photo)

SWAT officers cleared occupants one by one at the mathematical sciences building. (AP Photo)

It was the week before final exams at the University of California, Los Angeles, whose 43,000 students make it the largest campus in the University of California system. Classes were canceled Wednesday, but they are expected to resume Thursday.

A police officer directs a person before searching him. (Reuters Photo)