FINAL UPDATE 12:49 p.m.:
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) _The University of Texas has issued an all clear hours after a gunman opened fire with an assault rifle at a campus library then fatally shot himself. The university has posted a notice on its emergency information website emphasizing that the school remains closed and that the area around the Perry-Castenada Library is still an active crime scene. Officials say a man fired an automatic weapon on the sixth floor of the library early Tuesday before killing himself.
Police with bomb-sniffing dogs checked buildings at the University of Texas in Austin for a possible second suspect after a masked gunman killed himself at a library.
UT police say nobody else was hurt. Police are checking to make sure no explosives were been left behind.
Investigators are trying to determine why the gunman, with an AK-47, opened fire on the sixth floor of the Perry-Castaneda Library.
UT police spokeswoman Rhonda Weldon says the gunman then shot himself.
Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo told a news conference that police also are investigating what he described as a second crime scene outside the library — where shots also were fired. Acevedo says no shots were fired by law enforcement.
Senior Robby Reeb told ABCNews.com he was rushing through the campus late when he saw a man in a ski mask, wearing a suit and carrying an assault rifle.
Classes were canceled for the rest of today.
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
11:05 a.m. Update:
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) _ Police say they’re investigating two crime scenes on the University of Texas campus after a gunman opened fire inside a library then fatally shot himself.
Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo says authorities also continue to investigate reports of a possible second suspect Tuesday morning.
Officials say a man fired an automatic weapon on the sixth floor of the Perry-Castaneda Library early Tuesday before killing himself.
No other injuries have been reported but Acevedo says police also are investigating what he describes as a second crime scene outside the library where shots were fired.
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
9:30 a.m. Update: A gunman on the University of Texas campus apparently fired several shots before taking his own life on the 6th floor of the Perry-Castaneda Library.
The Austin American-Statesman reports police are looking for a possible second suspect, based on conflicting descriptions of the original suspect by eyewitnesses.
There have been no reports of any injuries, but the UT campus remains on lockdown.
Original Story: AUSTIN, Texas (AP) _ Police at the University of Texas at Austin are investigating reports of a man on campus who may have shot himself.
UT police spokeswoman Rhonda Weldon said Tuesday that “preliminary reports are that this person shot himself, but that is not confirmed.”
Weldon says the campus was put on lockdown around 8 a.m. Tuesday following a report “of an armed subject” at the Perry-Castaneda
Library.
Weldon told The Associated Press that nobody else was reported hurt. She had no additional details.
A statement on the UT website, at 9:02 a.m. Tuesday, said “stay in place, lock doors.” A loudspeaker on campus was announcing there was an “emergency” on campus.
Police barricades were in place in an area near the library, located on the southern part of the campus.
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)