Three people were killed and one person was wounded in a shooting on the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, campus Wednesday afternoon, police said.
Police said Wednesday evening that the suspect was killed by officers who rushed to the scene and that there was no ongoing threat to the community.
Sheriff Kevin McMahill of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said at a Wednesday evening news conference that the police know the identity of the suspect but will not release his name until the families of the victims are notified.
Two law enforcement sources told CBS News the gunman, who they described as a white male in his sixties, was a former college professor who had previously taught in Georgia and North Carolina.
"It just goes back to what I said before about guns in America. I think it's such a longer conversation, but we keep dealing with the same story, this same conversation every single time it happens, and it just continues to happen. The ability to get a gun, the ability to do these things over and over and over, and there's been no change is literally ridiculous. It makes no sense that we continue to lose innocent lives, on campuses, schools, at shopping markets and movie theaters and all type of stuff. It's ridiculous.
The shooting was first reported at 11:45 a.m., and McMahill said the incident originated on the fourth floor of Beam Hall.
"We heard shots; we heard a bunch of shots, and the second police got there, they went in, and more shots were fired,” UNLV junior Danny Coleman told KTNV ABC 13.
The officers engaged the suspect in a firefight, where he was struck and killed, according to the police.
UNLV said police were working to evacuate buildings one at a time, and students were urged to shelter in place. The order was lifted late Wednesday night, university president Keith E. Whitfield announced in a letter to the community.
Jesus Medina, 28, said his wife, Stephanie, 26, who works in an administrative role in the English department, got an active shooter alert and hunkered down inside her building. He was anxious for her to be evacuated and described the panicked thoughts that raced through his head as he sped to campus to pick her up.
"Lord, please don't let anything happen to my wife," he said.
Deon J. Hampton reported from Las Vegas, Sarah Guevara from Washington and Daniel Arkin from New York
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