3 killed in mass shooting at University of Nevada, Las Vegas

A mass shooting at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) has ended with at least three people killed, another in critical condition and the shooter dead, Las Vegas police said Wednesday.

The shooting was reported around noon (2000 GMT) at the Frank and Estella Beam Hall, home to the Lee Business School, according to the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department.

UNLV Vice President of Public Safety Services Adam Garcia said officers "engaged" the shooter, who was then found "deceased."

Authorities also investigated reports of shots fired near the student union.

Several major thoroughfares near the campus remained closed, with police in and around the University District. Several other schools in the area were also locked down, with many campuses closed for the day after the shooting.

The shooter died around 12:30 pm after a massive tactical response by Las Vegas Metro police and its SWAT vehicles along with federal law enforcement, sources told the Los Angeles Times. Within a few minutes of the first shot being fired, Las Vegas Metro police officers fired on the shooter, law enforcement sources said. After moving in, they found the suspect was dead.

"There's no further threat," Sheriff Kevin McMahill said at a news conference. "Of course, we have no idea on the motive."

Around 3:40 pm, Las Vegas police said that three victims had died and one more was being treated at a hospital after being critically wounded.

UNLV's law school told its students through email that finals are canceled at least through Saturday.

Jason Whipple Kelly, a second-year law student at UNLV, was walking onto campus to take a final exam when he received a text message from the university at 11:51 am.

"University Police responding to report of shots fire in BEH evacuate to safe area, RUN-HIDE-FIGHT," the text read. BEH refers to Beam Hall.

As soon as he read the message, sirens began blaring and he saw police running onto campus.

"I was walking to the law school, got the text and turned around and ran back to the car," the 27-year-old said.

The William S. Boyd School of Law building is near Beam Hall, where the shooting occurred, and the student union, where shots also were reported.

Cesar Marquez, the chair of the Nevada Forward Party, an organization that aims to expand political options, was on campus during the shooting.

He wrote in a that a "SWAT team came and evacuated us from the student union."

In videos posted to the site, dozens of students wearing backpacks can be seen walking through a parking lot past police. Some have their hands raised . A helicopter circles overhead as the students are led beyond a police line.

UNLV, less than two miles east of the Las Vegas Strip, has a student enrollment of about 25,000 undergraduates and 8,000 postgraduates and doctoral candidates. According to the university's academic calendar, this is the last week of regular instruction, with final exams scheduled next week.

Brandon Sanchez, 20, was sitting in front of Beam Hall where a free food event for "study week" was happening. Around 200 people were in the plaza, he said, when he heard about six loud bangs directly behind him.

"We shrugged it off and assumed it was construction because there's always construction going on," he said.

But then a couple of more bangs sounded. Then one more.

"We started walking slowly away, and then when we saw a police car pull up, then we started running," he said.

Sanchez raced across the street to a store where students began gathering inside, calling friends and family. Police flooded onto the campus, and Sanchez said at least four cruisers were on the scene within seconds of the last gunshot.

Sanchez, a junior majoring in broadcast journalism, said all his classes had been canceled but noted that some professors had notified students about plans to resume classes and exams after authorities deemed campus safe.

Classes were canceled for the rest of Wednesday, the college said on social media. It was not immediately clear whether the campus would reopen Thursday.

The shooting comes more than six years after a gunman opened fire on the from his hotel room at Mandalay Bay, killing and injuring more than 400 before turning the gun on himself.

It also follows the arrest this week of two students at Redondo Union High School in Redondo Beach, California. Officials say the students brought onto the campus in two separate incidents.

There have been at least 630 mass shootings in the US as of Wednesday, according to the Gun Violence Archive, which defines a mass shooting as an incident with four or more people shot, injured or killed — not including the shooter.

The Gun Violence Archive is an independent research group that collects data from law enforcement, media, government and commercial sources.