Mass Shooting  Again In The United States, Las Vegas Police Respond To Active Shooter On University Campus

The shooter has been confirmed dead

By Edward Era Barbacena 

Las Vegas police announced that a suspect is dead after officers responded to an active shooter at the University of Nevada’s Las Vegas campus Wednesday.

“There appears to be multiple victims at this time,” the agency said in a post to X, formerly Twitter.

Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Sheriff Kevin McMahill declined to give information on the number of people transported to hospitals during a brief press conference, but emphasized that the situation was contained.

“I want to assure the community there’s no further threat,” McMahill said.

“Of course we have no idea on the motive,” he added.

Authorities were seen swarming Beam Hall, located south of the city center. The building is home to the university’s Lee Business School and sits opposite the student union, where additional shots were reportedly heard.

Students had been preparing for their final exams, which were set to begin next week.

Roughly 5,000 students attend the school, including 500 graduate students.

Less than an hour passed between initial reports of the shooting and its apparent end, although the University of Nevada asked the campus to keep sheltering in place while officers worked to clear buildings one by one.

“This remains an active investigation,” the university told its students.

The city of Las Vegas was the site of the worst mass shooting in modern U.S. history in October 2017, when a single gunman opened fire from a room on the 32nd floor of the Mandalay Bay hotel overlooking a crowd. He fired more than 1,000 rounds, killing 58 people and injuring more than 400 people attending the Route 91 Harvest music festival on the Las Vegas strip.

In 2019, Nevada’s state legislature approved several gun violence prevention bills, including banning bump stocks, which allows a shooter to rapidly fire multiple rounds.

So far in 2023, the U.S. has seen 630 mass shootings in which at least four people were shot or killed, according to a count by the Gun Violence Archive.

Shortly before the shooting, Senate Democrats in Washington attempted to pass a nationwide assault weapons ban. Republicans blocked it.