LAS VEGAS (Nevada, US), Dec 7 (NNN-AGENCIES) — Three people were killed and another critically injured in a shooting at a Las Vegas university on Wednesday police said, with the suspect also dead.
“According to our investigators at the scene, we have three deceased victims and one additional victim in critical condition at a local hospital,” the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department wrote on social media, adding “the suspect in this #ActiveShooter incident is also deceased.”
Police said they had responded to calls around midday, and indicated that officers had engaged a suspect on the campus, where gunshots rang out in at least two locations.
Two hours after the shooting erupted, the university, which sits just a short distance from the heavily touristed Las Vegas Strip, continued to urge people to shelter in place, saying that police were working to clear each building in turn.
Brett Forrest, a reporter from the local KSNV said he had been on the campus for an assignment, and was continuing to shelter in place with dozens of students and faculty as they awaited the all-clear from police.
“We are told that they’re coming building by building slowly letting out each building making sure no additional victims or anyone else inside so they might take a while,” he said.
Universities in the area were shuttered for the rest of the day, and flights into the nearby international airport were halted, the Federal Aviation Administration said.
Las Vegas is a gambling and entertainment hub that attracts millions of visitors every year, many of whom come to see large, high-profile events.
Last month the city played host to its inaugural Formula One Grand Prix, and in February it will be the scene of the Super Bowl, the showcase final of the professional American football season.
The city was also the scene of one of America’s deadliest mass shootings when a gunman opened fire on a crowded music festival in 2017, killing 60 people
Mass shootings are alarmingly common in the United States, a country where there are more guns than people and where attempts to clamp down on their spread are always met with stiff resistance.
The country has recorded over 600 mass shootings this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive, a nongovernmental organisation that defines a mass shooting as four or more people wounded or killed.
Efforts to tighten gun controls have for years run up against opposition from Republicans, staunch defenders of what they interpret as an unfettered constitutional right to weaponry. — NNN-AGENCIES
