[Updated 5:27 p.m.]
Virginia Tech confirmed this afternoon that a police officer and one other person were shot and killed today on the campus, in an incident that immediately raised fears about a repetition of the 2007 shooting spree by a student that claimed 33 lives.
After putting the campus on lockdown for several hours, the university announced that “law-enforcement agencies have determined there is no longer an active threat,” and that people on the campus could “resume normal activities.”
That announcement followed word, also from the university, that the second person killed might have been the gunman himself. He was described as “an unknown male subject,” and a weapon was found near his body. “Reports of any additional shots being fired or any additional victims are unfounded,” the university said.
According to the Associated Press and USA Today, today’s incident took place in a parking lot, after a traffic stop. But the AP later reported that the gunman was not in the car that had been pulled over.
Neither the gunman nor the police officer, a four-year veteran of the campus police force, has yet been identified.
By chance, the shooting took place on the same day university lawyers were trying to persuade a federal judge to overturn $55,000 in fines imposed by the Education Department over how Virginia Tech handled the 2007 tragedy.
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