UCLA in California was in lock-down earlier today after two students were killed in a murder-suicide in the engineering building. While it is *not* a mass-shooting, there were reasonable fears earlier today that it could have been, and as is standard protocol the entire building was placed on lockdown.
Unfortunately, most of the doors don’t have locks and open outwards, meaning engineering students were forced to put their partial degrees to use and come up with ingenious ways to keep the door barricaded from the threat of a potential shooter.
“The doors open outward and we can’t lock them so we are barricading things in front of the door,” wrote student Jason Shechter.
The doors open outward and we can’t lock them so we are barricading things in front of the door #Ucla #activeshooter pic.twitter.com/KwA3VjqVHh
— Jason Schechter (@Jasonschechter) June 1, 2016
Students began using electrical chords, belts, desks, chairs, projectors and anything else they could get their hands on to keep the doors locked.
#UCLA shooting. Barricaded in room in bunche. Doors open outward, no locks. Lots of helicopters and yelling outsid pic.twitter.com/6g2coCdOTC
— Daph (@whydaphnewhy) June 1, 2016
#ucla when we were first trying to barricade the door after hearing the 1st shot an hour ago pic.twitter.com/HDaydt2lYG
— Daph (@whydaphnewhy) June 1, 2016
Other students in the building tweeted photos of similar barricades.
Using my belt to lock the door down. #UCLA #activeshooter pic.twitter.com/XIxm0uWIe3
— Carrie Rapaport ?? (@newt_ripley) June 1, 2016
Doors open outward with no locks so we had to improvise our own locking mechanism #uclashooting #engineers pic.twitter.com/GAI1OeCSzK
— Pranasha Shrestha (@pranashalovesu) June 1, 2016
The campus is no longer in lockdown. Police believe – based on appearances – that a professor was shot by someone young enough to be a student, who then turned the gun on himself. Neither victim has yet been named.
