‘It was such a madhouse’: The frantic search at UCLA after murder-suicide
Police used a tried and true method to sweep the UCLA campus after a fatal shooting Wednesday.
Police said two men died in a murder suicide, but officials still methodically moved through the campus to clear classrooms.
Alex Baquero, 31, was installing some equipment at Boelter Hall when he started hearing students running down the hallway.
At first he didn’t think anything of it because there have been active shooting drills on campus before.
But that changed in an instant when police arrived and he heard a man yell, “Run! Run! Run! Active shooter!”
Students began running from all different places. Baquero ran into a room and locked himself in.
“it was such a madhouse, people were just trying to get out,” he said.
Police generally search for suspects by forming into small teams using “grid by grid” system. In this case, officers went classroom to classroom, lab to lab to clear each one in succession.
Videos and images on social media showed police in riot gear with guns drawn. There were also images of police asking people to put their hands up.
The idea is to make sure all areas are safe before moving on.
The process was used last year during the terrorist attack in San Bernardino, which killed 14 people at the Inland Regional Center. Police slowly cleared the area and later tracked down the shooters. In that case, the sweep uncovered explosive devices that the shooters left at the center.
UPDATES:
12:25 p.m.: Updated with murder-suicide information.
12:05 p.m.: This article has been updated with details from the scene.
This article was originally published at 11:02 a.m.
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