9 shots fired on UC Berkeley campus, suspect in custody

BERKELEY, Calif. - People on campus at w were temporarily under a shelter-in-place order when shots were fired on Friday evening near Sproul Plaza, the university said.

One person is in custody after gunfire broke a window, but injured no one around 8:40 p.m, according to UC Berkeley.

An investigation is underway, with officials providing a brief description of what happened.

"There had been an altercation, a weapon was produced and a total of nine shots were fired," the university's statement said.

The shelter-in-place order was lifted by 9:50 p.m. 

The university called the shooter a lone actor and said police said they were detained less than two minutes after shots rang out. 

Students were not alerted through the WarnMe Emergency Alert system until around 9:20 p.m., nearly 40 minutes after the shooting took place. 

UC Berkeley said there were additional police on campus at the time the shooting occurred.

Students we spoke with were startled by the gunfire and wondered about why they weren't warned sooner.

"This was during, like a dance practice for a club," said David Zhang, a UC Berkeley student. "In the middle of our practice session this person, who I believe is the suspect, came in and was asking for a USB charger. And then I guess the club organizers were trying to direct the person elsewhere. But I guess it started to escalate. 

He said the students fled for their own safety and that once things got physical, everyone started to scatter. UC Berkeley officials said the suspect pulled out a gun and fired the rounds into the air. 

Another student said they only received the WarnMe alert through email and not by text. 

Viviana, a student who did not give her last name, said she was calling her mom when she saw the WarnMe email notification. She said WarnMe alerts typically involve "aggravated assault" and that the campus community is used to getting WarnMe alerts every day. 

We have asked UC Berkeley why there may have been a delay in that informational warning. We will update this story if we hear back from the university.