UCLA Shooting: Professor Dead In Murder-Suicide, Campus Safe

A UCLA biomechanics professor was killed in a murder-suicide at UCLA Wednesday morning that sent the campus into lockdown for several hours. Students barricaded themselves in classrooms and dorms as authorities swept the campus.

The suspected shooter, the victim and a gun were found in a small office inside an engineering building. The victim has been identified by UCLA students as William S. Klug, a researcher in the field of continuum mechanics and molecular biophysics and father of two young children. The identity of the shooter was not immediately known, but police confirmed that he may have been a graduate student.

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"Shocking, to say the least," Lance Giroux, a friend of Klug's told ABC7. "I think pretty much everybody says that, but for a guy like Bill, it's even more shocking just based on his personality and the kind of guy he was. To have something like this happen is just unfathomable."

Klug coached Giroux's 10-year-old son's Little League team in El Segundo, Giroux said.

"It's hard to even fathom it," Giroux told KCAL9. "To have your son grow up without a dad is rough, so I'm hoping that the community here could kind of rally around that."

A GoFundMe page has been established to help Klug's wife 10-year-old son and daughter with funeral expenses.

Klug was known for including students and graduate students in his research, giving them hands-on opportunities to study biomechanical interactions.

“He was always there for us. I just really appreciate him being that type of person there when I’m in trouble doing my project or having trouble figuring out a problem," UCLA student Renjie Li told NBC. "He’s definitely one of my favorite professors here at UCLA."

"I’m just outraged," Li added. "I’m mad that someone would do that to a young professor who just started his career at UCLA. It’s just a shame."

Police have yet to identify a motive in the slaying.

“There is evidence that there could be a suicide note, but we do not know that at this point," Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck said at an afternoon press conference.

“Many, many questions are unanswered about this," he added, "but I think the important thing for people to take away from this is that the campus is now safe.

“There is no evidence to support outstanding suspects at this point, but we are, out of an abundance of caution, going to continue our search of several of the buildings adjacent to the crime scene.”

The shooting was reported to police at 10:03 a.m.

An alert went to students notifying them to stay where they were. The university's campus, along with several nearby schools, were put on lockdown. The city of Los Angeles was on tactical alert.

In classrooms, confusion reigned.

A student on campus who identified herself as Carrie told Patch via text message that she learned about the lockdown via social media.

"All is OK for now," she said. "Just a bunch of scared students."

Carrie said most of the students only heard about developments by word-of-mouth, and updates from the school were sparse. Finals week is next week at UCLA, Carrie told Patch, although some students are taking them early this week.

Some students and faculty members found themselves holed up in rooms without locks along with doors that open outward so they couldn’t be barricaded. A couple of quick-thinking engineering students quickly rigged a locking system, using belts, rope and furniture to keep themselves safe:

Omar Moreno was in class in the math building across from the engineering building when the shooting occurred.

“I saw a lot of people running away out of the math building. A lot of people were exiting the building in a panic,” he told NBC News. “I wasn’t sure what was going on, but I started running, too.”

The shooting rocked UCLA, the largest university in California by enrollment numbers. Classes were canceled for the rest of the day.

In 2012, Business Insider used FBI crime data to determine what it called “The Most Dangerous Colleges in America.” UCLA was number one on the list. The magazine said that while crime was down from the year before, things were "still terrible."

Boelter Hall, where the school is reporting a possible shooting took place, is known as the birthplace of the internet. The first message sent on ARPANET (the precursor to today's internet) was sent from the hall in 1969.

Paige Austin, Autumn Johnson, Colin Miner and Alexander Nguyen contributed to this report.

Images via Tom Kosakowski and Pranasha Shrestha, and UCLA