Alleged Gunman Shot by UC Berkeley Police Has Died; Suspect Identified

12:05 p.m. UC Berkeley has identified the suspect as Christopher Nathen Elliot Travis, 32.

From the press release:

University of California, Berkeley, officials announced today that the man who wielded a gun at the Haas School of Business and was shot by university police yesterday was a transfer student. Christopher Nathen Elliot Travis, 32, who was an undergraduate, died last night after being transported to Highland Hospital.

“This is one of the most difficult times we have had as a community,” Chancellor Robert Birgeneau said this morning at a gathering with the grief-stricken Haas School community. “I want to thank the Haas staff for their alertness in this issue. It was just extraordinary. This sets an example for responsibility and alertness. I also want to thank the police for their very quick response...”

Campus counselors from University Health Services were dispatched yesterday to the Haas School to offer their services and will continue their presence there today.

Campus police have interviewed 17 witnesses at this point in the ongoing investigation and will continue with further interviews.

Earlier post

BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) — An alleged gunman who was shot by police on the University of California, Berkeley campus has died.

Campus spokesman Dan Mogulof says the man was an undergraduate transfer student who was attending classes at the Haas School of Business. Mogulof did not release his name.

Police officers tracked the suspect into a Haas computer room Tuesday afternoon after an employee reported seeing a man with a gun. During the confrontation, the suspect was shot.

He was taken to an Oakland hospital, where Mogulof says he died later Tuesday.

More from Berkeleyside:

Mogulof said that over 20 witnesses were being interviewed by police and the witnesses had been corroborating the original account of the story, detailed yesterday.

“There is no suggestion that this is anything other than an isolated incident,” Mogulof said.

Yesterday, at a press briefing, UC Berkeley Police Chief Mitchell Celaya and Chancellor Robert Birgeneau made the following points.

• The man with the gun, shot by UCB police, was 33 years old.
• He had been taken to Highland Hospital.
• When asked if the shooting was related to today's Occupy Cal protests, Birgeneau said, "we don't know. There's nothing to suggest that's the case."
• Celaya said that at the time of the shooting at least four students were in the computer lab. The suspect was shot by an officer after raising his gun. When the shooting occurred, the students were situated between the officer and the gunman, according to Birgeneau.
• Police responded after this series of events, according to the university: A female UC employee shared an elevator with the gunman at Haas. The gunman pressed the third-floor button and then reached into his backpack, pulling out an object that the other rider thought might be a gun, then put it back and got off at his floor. The other elevator rider got off at the fifth floor and informed her boss of what she saw. They went down to the third floor together, saw the man at the lab, and called police.

10:10 a.m. Two items of note from the Oakland Tribune:

-"The shooting was caught on a computer lab camera, and officials will review the tape, campus police Capt. Margo Bennett said."

-"Alex Arroyo, a UC Berkeley student who works at the front desk of the computer lab, said he did not notice the man enter, but he saw officers approach the man in the back of the lab, a large area that includes classrooms. "I heard them say, 'Drop the gun! Drop the gun!' and I heard four or five shots," Arroyo said."When we heard the shots, we all dropped to the ground, and about 30 seconds later the police came out and said, 'Everybody get out, get out.'"