Three Killed in University of Nevada, Las Vegas Shooting; Suspect Also Dead

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 Three people were killed and the suspect is dead in a shooting at University of Nevada, Las Vegas, police said. Photo: Steve Marcus/Associated Press

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A suspect is dead after three people were killed and one was wounded in a shooting at University of Nevada, Las Vegas on Wednesday, police said.

The motive for the attack isn’t yet known, said Sheriff Kevin McMahill of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department on Wednesday afternoon. The injured victim was in critical condition at a local hospital, the department said on social media.

“What happened today was a heinous, unforgivable crime,” the sheriff said.

McMahill said police know the identity of the suspected shooter but wouldn’t be releasing the name until the suspect’s family was notified.

The attacker was an older man who wasn’t a student, a law-enforcement official briefed on the investigation said.

Officials declined to release the names of the victims.

Just before noon Pacific time Wednesday, shots were fired on campus and the university ordered students to evacuate. Less than half an hour later, the university said shots were fired at a second location on campus.

Two university police detectives responded immediately to a report of an active shooter at 11:45 a.m. and engaged the suspect in a shootout, said Adam Garcia, vice president of public safety services and director of university police services southern command.

“The suspect was struck and is deceased,” Garcia said.

The shooting rocked a city that in 2017 was the site of the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history, after a 64-year-old man opened fire on the audience of a country music festival, killing 60 people and injuring hundreds more.

Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo, who previously was sheriff in Las Vegas, lauded the response by his former department and took a shot at its critics.

“I had no doubt that the response would be appropriate, it would be swift, it would be quick to the satisfaction of all the naysayers that we normally experience during critical incidents” said Lombardo, a Republican.

LeBron James, who was in Las Vegas ahead of the Los Angeles Lakers’ Thursday night game in the NBA’s In-Season Tournament, was asked about the shooting during a press conference Wednesday afternoon.

“We keep dealing with the same story, the same conversation every single time it happens, and it just continues to happen,” James said. “It makes no sense that we continue to lose innocent lives.”

Robert O’Connell contributed to this article.

Write to Zusha Elinson at zusha.elinson@wsj.com