(NewsNation) — Three victims died in a shooting at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas on Wednesday.
The suspected shooter is also dead, police said. One person who suffered a gunshot wound was taken to the hospital in critical condition and later upgraded to stable.
A motive for the shooting was not identified by law enforcement. Sheriff Kevin McMahill of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said while police do know the identity of the suspect, they will not be releasing his name until his next of kin is notified.
“What happened today was a heinous, unforgivable crime,” McMahill said. “It’s a crime that we train for each and every day.”
McMahill stressed there is no further threat to UNLV or other University of Nevada campuses at this time.
UNLV Police sent out a social post before noon Wednesday about shots fired in the Beam Hall building and told students and faculty to evacuate to a safe area, NewsNation local affiliate KLAS reported.
Adam Garcia, director of the campus’ university police services, said they received an initial active shooter call at 11:45 a.m.
Two detectives responded to the scene and got into a “shoot out” with the suspect outside of Beam Hall, Garcia said.
This remains an active investigation, UNLV said on X. Police were evacuating buildings one at a time on Wednesday afternoon, the university said in an alert.
Those needing victim services can call 702-455-AIDE (2433), and there’s a reunification center at the North Hall of the Las Vegas Convention Center.
The entire University of Nevada system campuses were closed Wednesday out of an abundance of caution Garcia said. UNLV classes are canceled through Friday. A basketball game was canceled between the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and the University of Dayton in Ohio.
In response to the shooting, the Federal Aviation Administration issued a ground stop of all flights coming into Harry Reid International Airport, which is about 2 miles away from the university. According to a tweet from LVMPD, students at Paradise Elementary were under a soft lockdown in the afternoon before being transferred to another school where they could be reunited with their families.
A student KLAS spoke to said he barricaded in his classroom and pushed six tables against the door.
Everyone was panicked, the student said.
“It’s very scary when you go to a college campus as open as this one,” he told KLAS. “People are scared now because every time you step on a college campus, there are shootings every single year now. I wasn’t even close to it and I’m still scared out of my mind right now.”
UNLV has more than 30,000 undergraduate and graduate students at its 332-acre campus, less than 2 miles east of the Las Vegas Strip.
“You see this stuff happening on television all the time — unfortunately, mass shootings are a common thing in this country,” UNLV student Najah Ali said to KLAS. “It doesn’t really hit you until it happens on your own campus.”
This story is developing. Refresh for updates.
The Associated Press and NewsNation local affiliate KLAS contributed to this report.
