Los Angeles Mayor appeals to gun control

Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti Thursday urged to make legislation on gun control to prevent gun violence, adding that the deadly shooting at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) should serve as a reminder.

He said, "When guns are so easy to get, when that violence continues to play out on our streets, we have to speak up and speak out -- have smart legislation to try to prevent that where we can."

"It's a reminder that gun violence does not discriminate. You can have a Ph.D. or you can be a little kid, you could be black or white, brown or Asian," Garcetti said.

"You can be a man or woman, young or old. And gun violence has just become too acceptable. We've become immune to it and, you know, a couple days later people say it's just a murder-suicide. Well, there's no such thing as just a murder, just a suicide."

He noted that the chaos and fear that erupted on the campus Wednesday often occurs "on our streets in certain neighborhoods each night."

Garcetti hailed the response of the various law enforcement agencies to the shooting, and the reaction of students.

The mayor said, "Students did exactly what they were told to do. ... They were heroic at a very, very tragic moment."

The shooting happened shortly before 10 a.m. local time on Wednesday in Boelter Hall, which is part of the Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science, according to the university. The shooting leads to two men dead, and Los Angeles police later announced it as a murder-suicide shooting.

The victim was identified as 39-year-old William Scott Klug, a father of two and associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, students and his colleagues told Xinhua on site Wednesday.

The gunman who named Mainak Sarkar was a Ph.D student and a current member of the Klug Research Group; Computational Biomechanics, at UCLA, according to a Klug Research Group publication.

After an less then 24-hour investigation, Los Angeles police announced on Thursday the shooter appears to have also killed a woman in Minnesota and a "kill list" found in gunman's Minnesota residence, more than one UCLA professors on it.

UCLA officials said the university was offering counseling services to students and staff affected by the shooting.

The university has designated "healing spaces" on the campus where students can gather, and counselors will be available for students at the Counseling and Psychological Services office. Endit