Shooting at CSUN Leaves 2 Dead

An argument between two men, apparently a student and an instructor, led to the fatal shooting of one of the men and the wounding of the other Wednesday evening in a building at California State University, Northridge, according to Los Angeles police.

The wounded man, a 35-year-old San Fernando Valley resident who is an associate professor at CSUN, was taken to Northridge Hospital Medical Center in critical condition and was not expected to live, police said.

Police said they did not know which of the men did the shooting, but reported that an automatic pistol was found next to the body of the dead man, believed to be a student. A knapsack and three shells also were found nearby, police said.

The dead man was shot once in the face, and the wounded man shot twice, Lt. Warren Knowles said. Neither man was identified.

Although that evidence suggested an attempted murder-suicide, Knowles said police were waiting for further investigation before reaching a conclusion about the shooting.

The shooting occurred about 7 p.m. on a stairwell between the third and fourth floors of the building that houses the School of Engineering and Computer Science, Knowles said.

Larry Klein, 20, a junior majoring in computer science at CSUN, said he was in a third-floor classroom after a computer programming class when he heard the gunshots coming from the stairwell outside the classroom.

“We heard a scream. There were several shots,” he said.

When he looked outside the classroom, he said, “there was someone who was running down the hallway yelling, ‘Call security. Someone with a gun. Someone’s been shot.’ ”

Then one of the students closed the classroom door, Klein said.