Two people were killed Wednesday in an apparent murder-suicide in an engineering building at UCLA, police said.
The deceased, both males, died in a shooting in a small office in the engineering building, according to LAPD Chief Charlie Beck. Their identities were not released.
At least three shots were fired, Beck said.
Beck said a gun was recovered at the scene of the shooting deaths. A note was found near the bodies, discovered in a small office, Beck said.
“There is a note,” Beck said. “I don’t know if it’s a suicide note. I don’t know if it’s a confession. I don’t know what it is.”
The UCLA campus was put on lockdown for hours after the shooting, which happened around 10 a.m. PT. Hundreds of officers and agents swarmed the campus, working in concert with the FBI and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, UCLA Police Chief Jim Herren said.
The lockdown was lifted just after noon.
A nearby hospital and three elementary schools were also put on lockdown.
“The issue that occurred has been contained,” Beck said just after noon local time.
Students were in the midst of finals week when the incident happened at UCLA, which has a quarter system for its academic calendar. Bahjat Alirani, a senior, told NBC News he was in the engineering building for an exam when he ran into a police officer. “He was pointing a big gun and said for everyone to run and get out of the area,” Alirani said. UCLA, a public university, has more than 43,000 students. President Obama was briefed aboard Air Force One about the deadly shooting, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said. Andrew Blankstein contributed. Check back for updates on this breaking story. This article originally appeared on NBCNews.com.
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