|
CLEVELAND -- The man who opened fire at Case Western Reserve University’s Peter B. Lewis building Friday afternoon is in police custody.
* Video: Hostages freed, suspect in custody
* University hotline: 216-368-3333
The suspect, described as a black man in his 50s wearing a camouflage shirt and army hat, shot one person in the buttocks outside of the building. That victim is in stable condition at Huron Hospital.
The shooter then broke through a glass door in the building with a hammer and shot another person who was later pronounced dead at University Hospital. His friend, 26-year-old Sachin Goel, a masters student from India, said the gunman tried to shoot him and another friend but they dove under a table in a hallway.
An employee in the building said the suspect was randomly shooting at people that walked by him.
Between 60 and 80 people were in the building at the time. Police and SWAT teams from Cleveland and Euclid quickly responded as well as FBI agents and EMS. Nearby buildings, including the Cleveland Botanical Gardens, were evacuated.
A SWAT team was seen running into the building at about 6:40 p.m. SWAT teams were also seen going into surrounding buildings shortly afterwards.
Three people, including a pregnant woman, were rescued from inside the building by EMS crews wearing bullet-proof vests around 8 p.m., escorted by police. The pregnant woman may have gone into premature labor, but is in stable condition. Several K-9 units were seen being brought to the scene at about the same time.
Cleveland police chief Edward Lohn said police and SWAT were going through the building room by room in an effort to free those who were trapped inside. As people were freed, many were loaded into waiting buses and whisked away from the scene.
Witnesses describe shooting
Many of those trapped inside the Peter B. Lewis building were communicating with loved ones via cell phones and even e-mail. The son of a man who works in the building said his father was hiding underneath his office desk with his secretary. His father told him he had heard the suspect was opening doors and entering individual offices.
One witness said that his sister was trapped inside the building. She called her boyfriend and said that she was huddled under her desk and couldn't leave her office.
For law school students, Friday was the last day of exams. CWRU student James Lisher said he was taking a final exam and didn't know there was anything wrong when he left an adjacent building at 4:10 p.m.
"Not many people were there today," Lisher said. "There were five people with me taking exams."
About Case Western Reserve
The $62 million Lewis building is in the Mather Quad section of the campus of Case Western, at the corner of Ford and Bellflower roads. It opened in October, 2002.
There are 1,496 undergrad and graduate students in the Management program, with 84 full-time faculty members.
Case is located in University Circle, a 550-acre, park-like concentration of approximately 50 cultural, medical, educational, religious, and social service institutions located just east of downtown Cleveland.
The school has a total enrollment of 9,530 students.
|
Threaded Mode