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Murder-Suicide Kills Two At UCLA, Shuts Down Campus

Murder-Suicide Kills Two At UCLA, Shuts Down Campus

By Alex Dobuzinskis and Piya Sinha-Roy

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – A murder-suicide killed two people at the University of California, Los Angeles on Wednesday, shutting down the campus for two hours as officers in camouflage and tactical gear responded to reports of a shooting.

“A homicide and a suicide occurred,” Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck told reporters near the scene, saying a gun was recovered at the scene.

“It appears to be entirely contained,” he said. “There are no suspects outstanding and no continuing threat to UCLA’s campus.”

Both victims were males, officials said, without offering further details.

The shooting created a stir as police approached the scene fearing the shooter might still be active and university officials ordered the campus locked down.

At least three city blocks leading into the campus were filled with dozens of emergency vehicles. Officers in camouflage uniforms with rifles, bulletproof vests and helmets surrounded the area of the shooting.

An armored car was parked in the middle of one intersection, and helicopters clattered overhead.

Students and other bystanders stood calmly, taking pictures on their cell phones and watching the emergency workers.

Bioengineering student Bahjat Alirani said police were yelling at people to run from the scene.

“I was in Boelter Hall to take a final and I exit the staircase to see SWAT-looking police yelling at everyone to evacuate immediately,” Alirani told Reuters.

UCLA, with more than 43,000 enrolled students, is in the Westwood section of Los Angeles and one of the more well-regarded schools in the University of California system, known for its successful sports program.

Police received multiple calls of shots fired around 10 a.m. (1.00 p.m. ET), triggering an immediate search for suspects and victims by LAPD and campus police, officials said.

Erica Roberts, a sophomore economics major from Rockville, Maryland, said she took shelter inside the student health center about 10 minutes after she had arrived for work there.

“Everyone is really on edge and contacting loved ones to let them know we are safe,” she said in a telephone interview. “I’m trying to stay in contact with all my friends on campus to make sure they are OK. Everyone is just terrified.”

 

Additional reporting by Amy Tennery, Lisa Girion and Nichola Groom; Writing by Daniel Trotta; Editing by Toni Reinhold and Tom Brown

Photo: A Los Angeles Metro Police officer stands watch on the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) campus after it was placed on lockdown following reports of a shooter in Los Angeles, California June 1, 2016.  REUTERS/Patrick T. Fallon

Sunset Boulevard Reopens After Massive Water-Main Break

Sunset Boulevard Reopens After Massive Water-Main Break

By Howard Blume, Los Angeles Times

LOS ANGELES — Sunset Boulevard reopened early Monday morning when crews finished repaving the thoroughfare after a water-main break created a massive sinkhole and flooded structures at the adjacent UCLA campus, the mayor’s office said.

Mayor Eric Garcetti’s office confirmed Sunset had reopened in time for Monday’s rush hour, but noted that drivers will be required to travel at reduced speeds on the affected part of the street.
The break, which occurred at the juncture of two trunk lines running underneath Sunset, spilled 20 million gallons of water.

The surging stream, which shot upward for hours, created a 25-by-30-foot oval sinkhole about seven feet deep, said Joe Ramallo, spokesman for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.

Repairing the water main required more excavation. DWP crews used about 400 tons of sand and 540 tons of crushed aggregate to fill the hole.

Work crews also have been busy at UCLA, which sustained widespread damage. The water stranded about 960 cars in two parking structures and flooded the floor of Pauley Pavilion, the school’s storied basketball arena.

According to a statement from the mayor’s office, the arena will be ready for the UCLA men’s and women’s basketball seasons.

The lower garage levels were submerged to the ceiling in water. No one was injured because the garages filled up gradually, and a water-rescue team was quickly on the scene, helping several people to safety, said UCLA spokesman Tod M. Tamberg.

But 400 were on floors that flooded. Owners can inspect and possibly retrieve them Tuesday.

Even among these, said Tamberg, “there could be cars with water that went halfway up the wheel. The owners may be able to drive those off, and if they do that will be terrific. For others, it will be a tough day emotionally to see their car ruined.”

Water was not fully pumped out till late Friday night, and then crews had to deal with mud and debris.

The cause of the break is under investigation. The L.A. water system has many old underground lines that have been deteriorating.

“At this point, corrosion is suspected,” Ramallo, the DWP spokesman, said.

The utility endured heavy criticism from residents and city officials for the length of time needed to shut off the water. The incident began about 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, and containing the main flow took about 5.5 hours, according to the utility.

After the main leak was stopped, shutting off more than 90 percent of the flow, about 1,000 gallons per minute poured out for a day. Some, if not most, of that discharge was unavoidable, Ramallo said.

“One of the things that can happen when we shut down pipes too fast is that it can damage other pipes,” he said.

The shutdown involved the coordinated control first of three valves, then of nine valves in the area.

“We also had to maintain positive flow and pressure through the pipes to maintain water quality,” Ramallo said. Otherwise, some residents would have had to boil water to make sure it was safe.
Turning the tap on again also has risks because fluctuation in pressure in the surrounding area could cause further leaks and breaks.

“The complexity of this job cannot be overstated,” Ramallo said.

Photo: Los Angeles Times/MCT/Jabin Botsford

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Massive Water Main Break Floods Area Near UCLA

Massive Water Main Break Floods Area Near UCLA

By Robert J. Lopez, Caitlin Owens, and James Queally, Los Angeles Times

LOS ANGELES — A massive water line break sent a geyser shooting 20 to 30 feet into the air and flooded part of busy Sunset Boulevard and the University of California, Los Angeles, campus.

The water had been raging for nearly two hours when Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti said at 5:15 p.m. PDT that it would take crews at least another hour to shut down the line.

Thousands of gallons of water trapped at least three people in cars, flooded underground parking lots on the UCLA campus, and sent a dramatic cascade pouring down the stairs into Pauley Pavilion, according to officials and television news footage.

The water was also flooding campus athletic fields, the Los Angeles Fire Department said.

Water was seen inside the J.D. Morgan Center, which houses athletic staff and administration offices, the George Kneller Academic Center, and UCLA’s Athletic Hall of Fame, and water has also been spotted inside the John Wooden Center.

The water flooded Pauley Pavilion, which underwent a $136 million renovation in 2012. Water covered the entire floor in the arena. There were also reports that the water got into the high-end club, which is on the first floor.

Tractors on campus were dropping dirt to create embankments to try to channel torrents of water away from buildings.

In messages on Twitter, Garcetti said the pipe involved is from 1921. The pipe is being “shut down now, but will take an hour to prevent shock to the system and further damage.”

The water main ruptured shortly before 3:30 p.m. in the 10600 block of Sunset Boulevard, fire officials said.

Sunset was closed in both directions from Marymount Place to Westwood Plaza, complicating the rush-hour commute for scores of drivers.

“This is the same thing you would have in any flash flood,” Los Angeles Fire Department Capt. Jaime Moore said.

He said that “thousands and thousands of gallons” of water had flooded the area from a 15-foot-wide hole on Sunset just a few yards from the UCLA campus.

People were evacuated from Parking Lots 4 and 7, Moore said.

An LAFD swift-water rescue team with four inflatable boats was at the scene, standing by in case people were stranded.

Students took off their shoes and waded across rivers of ankle-deep water on campus. Other people were showing up with boogie boards — a move discouraged by firefighters.

“That is probably one of the most dangerous things you can do,” Moore said. “For somebody to try and boogie board in this, it’s just going to be an asphalt bath.”

Water was as high as wheel wells shortly after the flooding began. Firefighters assisted at least three motorists.

Photo: Los Angeles Times/MCT/Jabin Botsford

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Stances On Israel Roil UCLA Campus

Stances On Israel Roil UCLA Campus

By Jason Song, Los Angeles Times

LOS ANGELES — Sunny Singh campaigned for UCLA student body president this spring, pledging to push for mental health resources, increase graduate school opportunities and make student government more efficient.

But try as he might, Singh believed his campaign kept getting overshadowed by one issue: Israel.

A student activist had asked candidates for all undergraduate student council offices to sign a pledge that they would not take trips to that Middle Eastern country under the sponsorship of three pro-Israel lobbying groups.

“It seemed unnecessary,” Singh said, adding: “We spent a lot of time talking about what we thought about Israel.”

Activists were successful in getting 17 of the approximately 30 contenders to sign the promise, saying they wanted the candidates’ positions about Israel on the record.

Singh and others felt that a small group of students had tried to bully them. Singh lost by 31 votes to a candidate who signed the pledge saying he wouldn’t take trips sponsored by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the Anti-Defamation League or Hasbara Fellowships. The winner, Devin Murphy, could not be reached for comment.

The issue — part of a broader movement in Europe and on college campuses here opposing Israel’s policies — has roiled the Westwood school.

Although the new board already has taken office, administrators and others say that the effects of the election linger and that they want to take steps to re-establish a civil tone and prevent the polarization that the pledge engendered.

Chancellor Gene Block sent an email to the campus Friday, saying he was disturbed by the events in the campaign. He asked for more tolerance and said administrators would try to find ways to avoid similar instances in the future.

“I am troubled that the pledge sought to delegitimize educational trips offered by some organizations but not others,” he said. “I am troubled that the pledge can reasonably be seen as trying to eliminate selected viewpoints from the discussion.”

UC President Janet Napolitano also weighed in, saying she shared Block’s concerns. “The principles of civility, respect, and inclusion … should also govern our campuses,” she said. “The actions of these students at UCLA violate these principles.”

Gabriel Levine, the pledge’s author, said that Block mischaracterized the pledge and denied trying to intimidate his peers. “An election is a chance to pin people down and find out what they believe,” he said.

Groups of students throughout the nation have pushed administrators to cut their business ties with companies doing business with Israel. Undergraduates at the University of Michigan and UC Santa Barbara voted down divestment resolutions, and UC Riverside students approved one, but observers say UCLA’s situation is the most contentious they have seen.

In February, UCLA student council members voted on whether to ask the UC system to divest from U.S. companies with connections to Israel, even though the university’s regents have consistently said they would follow the example of the U.S. government.

That night’s student council meeting began at 7 p.m. and ended 12 hours later. Even though speakers were allowed only two minutes each, public testimony went on for nearly nine hours.

“It’s amazing. Everyone was talking right past each other,” said Berky Nelson, a UCLA administrator who advises student government.

The student leaders voted in secret because some said they feared for their safety. Some also said they have been threatened on social media.

In the end, they voted not to call for divestment.

After the vote, a student panel began investigating whether Singh and another student who took a similar sponsored trip had a conflict of interest. It has not concluded its work.

When the election season for student government began this spring, Levine, a senior, wrote the pledge that called on candidates to refrain from trips to Israel sponsored by the three groups, which he said were “Islamophobic.” The statement also called on student representatives to refrain from trips supported by groups that promote discrimination on the basis of race, religion and other factors.

Several other organizations, including the Armenian Students’ and Muslim Student associations, also supported the pledge.

Levine, who is a member of Students for Justice in Palestine and says he is Jewish, said he also questioned why student leaders should benefit from the heavily subsidized trips while some of their peers were having trouble paying tuition.

“It just seemed unfair,” he said, adding that he doesn’t plan to advocate that other groups circulate similar pledges on their campuses.

Levine said few of the candidates would promise not to travel to Israel on certain trips, so he thought a written pledge was the best way to get their attention.

Representatives of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the Anti-Defamation League and Hasbara Fellowships said that the trips are meant to be educational and that students are chosen on the basis of their beliefs or a promise to share the groups’ viewpoints. They also said that students from across the country apply for the tours and that a handful of UCLA students go annually.

Amanda Susskind, the director of the Anti-Defamation League’s Pacific Southwest Region, said she was worried that students at other schools could adopt similar tactics and scare others from going on trips. “It’s a very slippery slope,” she said.

In the UCLA student council whose term just ended, three student representatives had gone on such a trip sponsored by one of the three groups, according to Levine.

Singh, 20, said he went on one sponsored by the Anti-Defamation League because he is a history and economics major and studies the region.

He saw the trip as an opportunity to “see the region with my own eyes.”

During his eight-day trip, Singh, of Irvine, met with Israeli and Palestinian students. “I don’t think we talked about divestment once,” he said.

Yet divestment became a major topic during elections. Singh said he’s agnostic about whether the UC system should cut business ties with some companies but said he wishes student government spent more time concentrating on issues closer to home.

“I ran to increase efficiency and get more mental health resources on campus,” he said, “not because I wanted to weigh in on world affairs.”

Photo via Flickr