SUBSCRIBE NOW

SIGHT

Be informed. Be challenged. Be inspired.

Las Vegas campus shooting leaves three dead, one in critical condition

Updated: 12:20pm (AEDT)
Reuters

A shooting on the main campus of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, on Wednesday left at least three people dead before the bloodshed ended with the suspect’s own death, authorities said.

The Las Vegas Police Department said in written statement on social media that three people, aside from the shooter, were killed. Another person who was shot is in critical condition.

People leave campus with raised hands following reports of a shooting at the University of Nevada, in the campus of Las Vegas, US

People leave campus with raised hands following reports of a shooting at the University of Nevada, in the campus of Las Vegas, US, on 6th December, 2023, in this screen grab taken from a handout video. PICTURE: Video obtained by Reuters

Authorities have not identified the victims nor have they elaborated on their conditions. It also remained unclear whether the suspect was shot dead by police or committed suicide.

Vincent Perez, a professor at the school, known by its initials UNLV, told MSNBC by phone that he had heard a lot of gunfire before taking cover on campus. 

“I would say just seven, eight shots, one after another, loud and very loud,” he said. “As soon as we heard that, we ran back inside and we realized this is a real shooting, and there’s an active shooter on campus.”

Official details of the incident remained sketchy.

After receiving a call reporting an active shooter on campus, law enforcement officers “immediately responded and engaged the suspect,” university police spokesperson Adam Garcia said at the briefing. “The suspect is deceased,” he added



Sheriff Kevin McMahill of Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said there was no longer any threat to the community, but the main UNLV campus and other branches of the university were being closed for the day “out of an abundance of caution.”

Officers were still searching through each building on the sprawling grounds to ensure “we don’t have additional victims or subjects,” the sheriff said.

Police said earlier on X that shots had been reported around Beam Hall, a campus building that houses the business school and other facilities. In a separate post, campus police said there was an additional report of shots fired in the Student Union.

Law enforcement officers head into UNLV campus after reports of an active shooter in Las Vegas, Nevada, US, on 6th December, 2023

Law enforcement officers head into UNLV campus after reports of an active shooter in Las Vegas, Nevada, US, on 6th December, 2023. PICTURE: Steve Marcus/Las Vegas Sun via Reuters

The first reports of the incident surfaced around noon, and within about a half hour Las Vegas police reported: “The suspect has been located and is deceased.”

The UNLV campus, located less than two miles east of the Las Vegas Strip, has a student enrollment of some 25,000 undergraduates and 8,000 post-graduates and doctoral candidates.

The sheriff said students on the campus appeared to have been badly shaken, as were people in the aftermath of a mass shooting in 2017, when a gunman opened fire from a high-rise hotel window onto a music festival below along the Las Vegas Strip. Sixty people were killed and hundreds more were wounded in what still ranks as the deadliest mass shooting by a single gunman in US history.

In Washington, the White House said it was monitoring the situation in Las Vegas on Wednesday.

–  Additional reporting by JASPER WARD in Washington, DC, and DAN WHITCOMB in Long Beach, California.

 

Donate



sight plus logo

Sight+ is a new benefits program we’ve launched to reward people who have supported us with annual donations of $26 or more. To find out more about Sight+ and how you can support the work of Sight, head to our Sight+ page.

Musings

TAKE PART IN THE SIGHT READER SURVEY!

We’re interested to find out more about you, our readers, as we improve and expand our coverage and so we’re asking all of our readers to take this survey (it’ll only take a couple of minutes).

To take part in the survey, simply follow this link…

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

For security, use of Google's reCAPTCHA service is required which is subject to the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.