A tragic event that occurred at one college campus on Wednesday has shaken the entire nation. Two male students were the victims of a murder-suicide at UCLA, resulting in a campus-wide lockdown along with manhunts for the shooter and searches for hideaways for fellow students. This murder-suicide took place in one of UCLA’s engineering buildings. The two students who died, however, were the only ones who were shot.
Along with the police, agents from the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives arrived at the scene of the incident shortly after it occurred. Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck has confirmed that there was no ongoing threat at the school after the shooter had killed himself shortly after noon. The police have located the weapon that was used. A citywide tactical alert was issued by the LAPD which required that the shifts of the officers on duty be extended. There are currently no suspects at large for this case.
Although the campus remained lockdown for quite some time after the shooting, the campus reopened on Wednesday afternoon. The campus was safe to venture around but all Wednesday classes were cancelled. This did not cancel the finals, however. There has been several reactions that have focused on one of the psychology professors who would not cancel her final over the students deaths. She plans to continue to hold the final on Thursday morning. Other professors, however, have postponed their testing until a later date next week so that students may cope with their grief. The engineering school’s senior class dinner which was initially supposed to be held on Thursday night was also postponed.
“It is so disappointing how regular these shootings have become. My heart goes out to everyone involved,” said Towson Sophomore Murphy Atwell.
It is unknown why the shooter committed this murder-suicide. It is also unknown what the names of the two students who died are at this time. Although it is quite frightening that two students died because of this, many were fearful when first hearing about the incident that it would become an incident such as the Virginia Tech massacre in 2007. 32 students died on this day, making this predicament much less frightening than it could have been.
“Despite how awful a situation like this is, I think it really should show how prepared UCLA was to handle the incident,” says University of Maryland sophomore Andy Schell. “In a school of over 40,000 people, two were hurt. Many more could have been killed or wounded but the police responded quickly and the incident was well-contained. But it’s a horrible event nonetheless. I expect that security will be tightened not only at UCLA but around the area as well.”
It is unknown how colleges will enhance security measures to ensure that an incident like this will never occur again. It is expected that a murder-suicide such as this one, or perhaps a massacre that is even worse, will never happen again.
