Update (6:09 p.m. EDT): The AP now reports seven people have died and three were injured in the shooting. Police still haven't discussed a motive.

Update (5:27 p.m. EDT): The Tribune has a little more information on Oikos University, a non-profit Christian school "affiliated with the Praise God Korean Church in Oakland and Shepherd University of San Francisco." Situated in an industrial park in East Oakland and founded in 2004, it offers programs in Asian medicine, nursing, religion, and music.

Update (5:19 p.m. EDT): California Beat is now reporting nine people were shot, of whom six have died, according to Oakland City Council President Larry Reid. The suspect in custody hasn't been named, but he's described as an Asian man in his 40s who wore khakis. Highland hospital has confirmed four victims arrived there for treatment, but has declined to offer any more comment to the various media covering the story.

Original: Police and reporters are still trying to figure out exactly what happened when a former nursing student opened fire at a religious school in Oakland, California on Monday, in one of the deadliest school shootings ever to hit California. At least four people were killed, though the Associated Press reports five, and a suspect has been detained, but not necessarily arrested, after someone walked onto the campus of Oikos University and opened fire. Meanwhile, authorities are still searching the school for more victims. The Oakland Tribune's office has even been locked down, reporter Matt Krupnick tweeted.

The story's still unfolding but the initial details are startling: The Tribune reported students were being evacuated in armored vehicles while ambulances carried away some victims and others received triage outside the school, which is across the Nimitz Freeway from the Oakland Coliseum. The four victims weren't pronounced dead immediately after the gunman opened fire at 10:23 a.m., Pacific time, but rather arrived at Highland Hospital for treatment, where they later died. The school's founder, Pastor Jong Kim, "said the shooter had previously been a nursing student at Oikos but was no longer enrolled. He was unsure whether the shooter had been expelled or dropped out voluntarily," the Tribune reported. Police told the AP they'd arrested one suspect five miles away in neighboring Alameda, an island city in San Francisco Bay.

The last time the state experienced a shooting this deadly was in 1989, when a drifter opened fire on a Stockton elementary school, killing five children, before turning the gun on himself.

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Adam Martin