Thanks to a phone call and training, five employees quickly evacuated the University Credit Union branch near a shooting that claimed the lives of two men on UCLA's campus Wednesday morning.

Just minutes before the campus was placed on lockdown, the branch manager's brother who works at UCLA heard about the shooting and called UCU's UCLA branch in the Ackerman Student Union, which is about 400 feet from the university's engineering building where the apparent murder-suicide took place.

Relying on their training, the employees quickly locked up the branch and left in an employee's car. They drove to a nearby parking lot at a shopping mall where they met Branch Manager Julio Macias, who was off-campus at the time of the incident. The employees then drove to UCU's main office on Sepulveda Boulevard in Los Angeles.

“A few of them were shaken up,” UCU Vice President of Marketing and Communications Sara Stern said.

In February, Macias and Stern attended an active shooter seminar that was held at the UCLA campus by LAPD and UCLA police.

The seminar was held in response to the San Bernardino terrorist attack that killed 14 people and seriously injured 22 others last December.

Through a video presentation, police explained what people should do in a lockdown situation, how to evacuate an area and how to keep safe.

“The video training led to a very good discussion about how to handle an active shooter on campus,” Stern said. “So that's why we ended up developing a plan of what we needed to do to evacuate from campus, where they (employees) would go, and what would happen afterward.”

Because the lockdown was lifted, Stern said the campus branch reopened in the afternoon and the staff would distribute water and cookies to anyone who was on campus.

“This was an unfortunate situation that happened, but due to good training, our staff remained safe and made good decisions,” Stern said. “Our hearts go out to the families of the victims in this senseless situation. UCU will step up to help in any way possible for the university and community to make sure that we become a resource to anyone who needs us.”

Shortly before 10 a.m., initial reports came in that shots were fired and two men were dead inside the engineering building. At the time, police were uncertain if a shooter was loose on campus, according to local media reports.

Hundreds of officers from several law enforcement agencies flooded the campus in search of a possible gunman or gunmen. Authorities locked down the campus. Nearby middle and elementary schools were also placed on lockdown, local media outlets reported.

By noon, the LAPD reported the shooting appeared to be a murder-suicide and a note was found. Police did not say whether it was a suicide note, according to local media reports.