[Global Times Comprehensive Report] Famous American public universities — — A shooting incident occurred at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) on the 1st, killing two men, including the gunman who shot himself after killing. Preliminary investigation shows that the two deceased were teachers and students. Perhaps the gunman was dissatisfied with the scores of related disciplines and started to kill. US President Barack Obama has listened to the briefing on the shooting incident, which has once again triggered the debate on the issue of robbery control in American society.
The Los Angeles Times reported on the 2nd that UCLA6 ushered in the exam and graduation season in June. At about 10 am on the 1st, the tense and orderly learning atmosphere on campus was suddenly disrupted by the continuous sound of mobile phones. All the students at school received such a short message: someone shot on campus. In just a few minutes, thousands of school students quickly sought shelter to protect themselves. People in the classroom will lock the door, then pile the tables and chairs together and block the entrance. Because the situation was still unclear at that time, some people received false information that there were "as many as four gunmen", so the school was once in panic and chaos.
After receiving the alarm, 200 law enforcement and firefighters, including special police team and FBI agents, immediately entered the school and blocked the entrance. Helicopters circled over the incident site. Armed police searched the UCLA engineering experimental building floor by floor. Finally, they found two male bodies in an office on the fourth floor of the building. Charlie Baker, the head of the local police station, said at a later press conference that it was not difficult to infer from the wound that the gunman killed the victim first and then shot himself. The police also found a note at the scene of the murder, which is now inferred to be the suicide note left by the murderer. As the case is still in progress, the police said it was inconvenient to disclose the contents of the note. Witnesses at the scene said that the gunman wore a black dress and carried an automatic rifle into the campus that day, and fired at least three shots at the crime scene.
CNN)2 reported on the 2nd that the alert state of UCLA campus was lifted around 12 noon that day, as the murderer was killed and the weapon was seized. The person in charge of the police said that the gun case did not involve other suspects. The school cancelled all classes on the afternoon of the 1st and said it would resume classes on the 2nd. The engineering laboratory building where the murder happened will not resume normal operation until next Monday. Teachers and students in the school said in an interview with the media that the shooting incident made them feel worried. "I can’t believe this happened in my school."
The school confirmed that the man killed by the gunman was William Kruger, an associate professor of engineering at the school, who was only 39 years old. Kruger holds a doctorate from California Institute of Technology, focusing on mechanical engineering and aerospace engineering. According to people familiar with him, William was not only brilliant, but also kind and popular. A colleague commented: "In the highly competitive academic world, it is really rare for a person with talent and good personality like him."
According to the report in UCLA’s journal Daily Bear, the gun case is still under investigation, and the police refused to disclose all the information about the gunman, including his identity and motive. However, a person familiar with the matter said on social media that the gunman was a student of William, and he was "extremely depressed" because of his poor grades in some courses, and he was very dissatisfied with William’s grades, which may be the motive for his murder. However, this statement has not been officially confirmed.
The White House said that President Obama expressed great concern about the gun case. During his trip to Indiana, he listened to the briefing and asked the staff to report the latest progress to him. Eric Gasetti, Mayor of Los Angeles, expressed his condolences to the victims of the shooting and praised the teachers and students of the school for their calm and appropriate response to the crisis.
School shootings are common in the United States. Since 2015 alone, there have been more than 20 large and small school gun cases in the United States. In the past two years, the most serious school shooting incident occurred in Roseburg, Oregon: a community college in the city was attacked by gunmen last October, killing 10 people and injuring 9 others.
The gun case at UCLA has once again triggered a heated debate on the issue of robbery control. A few days ago, Dana Lesch, a well-known American gun advocate and popular radio anchor, made provocative remarks on Twitter, saying that UCLA’s gun case showed that gun control was meaningless in the United States. She said that California itself has extremely strict gun control measures, and UCLA campus explicitly prohibits carrying guns. In this case, the gunman was able to bring high-powered weapons in openly, and the effectiveness of the relevant measures cannot but be questioned.