Hostage Drama Ends In Cleveland

After a 7-hour standoff, Cleveland police detained a lone gunman who opened fire inside the Case Western Reserve University business school, killing at least one person.

The arrest capped a tense drama in which more than 70 people, mostly university staff, were trapped in the business school building with the gunman, who was clad in camouflage clothes and believed to be carrying an automatic weapon.

Police sealed off the sprawling Peter B. Lewis Building on the CWRU campus after the shooting began about 4 p.m. After waiting several hours in a failed attempt to communicate with the shooter, SWAT teams entered the building and began bringing out trapped occupants, reports CBS affiliate WOIO.

Shortly after 11 p.m. ET, Cleveland police chief Edward Lohn told reporters that police had a suspect in custody. "We believe he is the shooter," the chief said.

Lohn said about 70 people had been in the Peter B. Lewis Building and that most had been rescued. He would not discuss injuries, saying family members had not been notified. At least one person has been confirmed dead, and police sources told WOIO that there were at least two dead.

The gunman, described as a middle-aged male, suffered a gunshot wound in the stomach and was taken by ambulance to a Cleveland hospital.

Earlier, Lohn had described the way SWAT teams cleared the building.

"Currently, we are rescuing the people that are in the building, and doing that room by room, floor by floor search," Lohn told WOIO. "The building is large, it's five floors, it has an atrium in the center, and there are no right angles, there are also a large number of people inside the building now."

WOIO reported that police have exchanged gunfire with the gunman in the Lewis building.

Cleveland Mayor Jane Campbell said that police SWAT times had located about 60 people inside the building and had secured them in safe rooms. She later confirmed the suspect was in custody.

During the standoff, occupants of the building used their cell phones and even computer e-mail to communicate with their loved ones.

"We're all shaking and quite scared. One of the girls in our office is seven months pregnant — we're trying to keep her as calm as possible," Tracy Warner, 30, told The Associated Press from a third-floor office where she was hiding with several other people.

Among those locked in the building was school official Dick Bennett. He said by telephone he believes there are 40 to 50 people inside the building, but few students, because finals were completed last week.

"We believe the shots are coming from the first floor," Bennett said by telephone from a third-floor room with eight other faculty members.

One of those wounded in the shooting was taken to a hospital with a gunshot wound to the buttocks, school spokeswoman Marcie Hersh said. At least one more person who had been shot remained inside the building in unknown condition.

A student who escaped, Sachin Goel, 26, was standing near the building's cafeteria with two friends when the gunman approached and opened fire. One of his friends screamed as he was hit, and the others dove for cover under a table.

"He couldn't get us. And then he again shot as we turned the table and put it in front of us," Goel said. "He was indiscriminately firing at everyone and a sane person would not be doing that."

"The moment I made the left turn to go into the main atrium, I heard two loud snaps, I mean likened to a pistol, firecracker," student Ben Martz, told CBS. "People kind of immediately duck and run out of the bldg."

Police said the man was believed to be wielding a high-powered rifle.

"He was just walking, aiming his guns and firing," said LeKisha Spencer, 28, who works in the first-floor cafeteria. She said he was carrying a "machine gun" and book bag, and was wearing a camouflage shirt and military-style green hat.

Albert DiFranco, 26, an assistant alumni director, said he was returning to his first-floor office from the restroom when he saw drops of blood and broken glass on the floor outside his door. People shouted down from a second-floor mezzanine for him to get out.

"I ran out," he said. "People were saying, 'Go go go!"'

Administrative assistant Bonnie Copes, 50, was locked in a department office inside the building. She said she was unable to leave — and was still hearing gunshots.

"Rounds and rounds and rounds," she said.

Case Western has 9,500 students. The $62 million Lewis building, designed by Frank Gehry, opened last fall and is about five stories high. Instead of walls on the south side, it has a curving roof, made of 20,000 stainless-steel shingles, that seemingly tumbles to the ground.

The building is named for the billionaire chairman of Progressive Insurance, who gave Case $37 million toward construction of the building.