Three people were killed after a gunman opened fire on Wednesday in a building at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, sending students running through plazas and courtyards in the latest scene of gun violence in America.
The gunman died in a shootout with the police, the authorities said. A fourth person who was shot was in stable condition at a hospital.
Sheriff Kevin McMahill of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said the police knew the gunman’s identity but would not release it until later. He did not provide any information about a motive. The shooter was roughly 60 years old, according to a law enforcement official who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
The gunfire erupted shortly before noon inside Frank and Estella Beam Hall, home of the Lee Business School, rattling professors, students and staff members across campus. They quickly moved to huddle in locked classrooms and offices and turned the lights off.
Armed police officers were still clearing buildings at U.N.L.V., one of the state’s largest schools, several hours after the shooting, but the police said that there was no further threat to the campus, which sits just east of the Vegas Strip.
Connor Friedman, a junior, said that he and a friend — who had been let out of class a few minutes early — were walking out of the building and heard loud banging moments later. At first, Mr. Friedman said he dismissed the sounds as noise from construction. But then they heard more bangs, and as they were about to walk into the Student Union building next door, they saw another student who was shouting about an active shooter.
“People started running and everything,” said Mr. Friedman, 20. “At first, it didn’t seem real.”
Parents outside a nearby middle school waited to pick up their children who had been bused from an elementary school on the U.N.L.V. campus.Credit…Bridget Bennett for The New York Times
Donte White hugged his 4-year-old daughter after picking her up at the middle school. “This was the biggest scare of my life,” he said.Credit…Bridget Bennett for The New York Times
The authorities said the gunman began his attack on the fourth floor of the business school building. Adam Garcia, who leads police services at the university, said that two of his detectives almost immediately engaged the gunman in a shootout outside the building.
Sheriff McMahill said he was not yet sure what kind of gun the shooter had used. He said that he was proud of his and the university’s officers for racing to the scene and saving lives, but that Wednesday was a tragic day for the campus and region.
“No student should have to fear pursuing their dreams on a college campus,” he said.
Final exams are scheduled for next week at U.N.L.V., and this week was known as study week, when many professors hold review sessions. Students said that the campus had been hosting a “de-stress” event inside the Student Union building, a relaxed gathering that quickly turned chaotic.
Montaro Rodriguez, 20, stopped by the building with two friends after finishing a class presentation in the morning. They were snacking on waffles and competing to build the tallest Lego tower when Mr. Rodriguez heard an odd sound and saw students sprinting away from the business school and shouting that there was a shooter.
“They train you for something to happen in the classroom,” he said. “This was hard because we were in the middle of this open campus. It was all on our own.”
Editors’ Picks
George Santos Uses Cameo Videos to Make, of All Things, an Honest Buck
With an Artist’s Help, Paddington Can Go Anywhere
Amber Fossils Suggest Male Mosquitoes Were Once Bloodsuckers
Mr. Rodriguez and his two friends fled with about 40 other people to another building where they spent the next two hours locked down, calling family to let them know what had happened.
At a campus where nearly 90 percent of students are Nevadans, the shooting recalled one of the state’s darkest days in 2017, when a gunman firing from a hotel killed at least 60 people at a country music concert, the deadliest mass shooting in modern U.S. history. That shooting took place just a few miles away.
Allister Dias, 20, the editor in chief of the student newspaper, fled the Student Union building through a stairwell on Wednesday, as gunshots rang out nearby. Hours later, Mr. Dias, who grew up in Las Vegas, could not help but think back to the 2017 attack. That another shooting would take place nearby just a few years later was “surreal,” he said.
“I’m still taking a lot of time to process what just happened,” he added.
Brett Johnsen, 23, was in a business law class on the second floor of the business school when he heard a loud thud followed by a blaring alarm. His professor opened the door to see what was going on and then told his students to get to the ground.
“We immediately knew what it was,” Mr. Johnsen said. Moments later, his professor peered outside and instructed his students to run from the building. Mr. Johnsen sprinted to a plaza across the street.
Mr. Johnsen, who grew up in Las Vegas and is studying marketing, said that ever since he experienced a false alarm of a shooting at his high school in 2018, he had preferred to take online classes.
“I wasn’t going to come to school today, but my finals are next week,” he said. “I was trying to do the right thing and study for the finals and this happened.”
Students said the campus was flooded with police officers within minutes of Wednesday’s attack. Videos showed dozens of students with backpacks, some with their hands raised, being escorted off campus by the police, as a helicopter circled above. A reunification center was set up at the Las Vegas Convention Center.
The police said that four people suffering from panic attacks had also been taken to hospitals, as well as two officers who sustained minor injuries while looking for the suspect.
The shooting spurred the F.A.A. to issue a brief ground stop at the city’s main airport, Harry Reid International Airport, which is just south of campus. U.N.L.V. will be closed at least through the end of the week, the authorities said, and officials will make a decision later about when to reopen and how to handle next week’s exams.
https://youtu.be/daOVd19aGBQ
The school’s basketball game against the University of Dayton, which had been scheduled for Wednesday night in Ohio, was also postponed.
The shooting rippled through communities connected to the university, including Paradise Elementary School, which sits on the college campus.
The elementary school was placed on lockdown, and the children were later bused to a nearby school where their parents waited anxiously to pick them up.
When Donte White, 35, was finally able to retrieve and hug his daughters, Sani’ye, 8, and Honesty, 4, he promised them ice cream.
“Anything they want,” Mr. White said. “This was the biggest scare of my life.”
Picking up Honesty and holding her close, he said he felt lucky to be able to hug his child.
https://youtu.be/b1Kd7Z_9xlY
https://youtu.be/zX_UkiifhOg
