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The Daily Tar Heel

LOS ANGELES (MCT) — The man suspected of shooting and fatally wounding multiple people at a religious college in Oakland had previously been a nursing student at the school.

Pastor Jong Kim, who founded Oikos University about 10 years ago, told the Oakland Tribune he was unsure if the alleged shooter had been expelled from the school or dropped out voluntarily. He said he heard about 30 gunshots while remaining in his office for safety.

Lucas Garcia, a teacher at the school, told KGO-TV he heard a half-dozen shots in the middle of a lesson before someone yelled that someone had a gun. Garcia said there are a little more than 100 students enrolled at the university, but not all were on campus at the time. He said the school teaches the Bible, nursing and English.

“It’s a small school,” he told KGO-TV.

Police arrested the suspect several miles away in Alameda at a shopping center Monday afternoon.
Authorities had described the gunman as an Asian man with a heavy build and wearing khaki clothing.

According to its website, Oikos University is a Christian university that “was established specifically to serve the community of Northern California in general and San Francisco and Oakland areas in particular.” The school is not far from Oakland International Airport and the Oakland Coliseum.

Dramatic live television footage showed officers swarming around the small Christian university, with some appearing to enter the main building. Some civilians were seen being rushed from the building and into police vehicles.

Meanwhile, officials said there were “mass fatalities” in the shooting, but it remained unclear how many people were killed. Several media reports said about 10 people were hit but there were conflicting reports as to how many are dead.

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