The former UCLA doctoral student who gunned down a professor in an apparent murder/suicide had a “kill list” that included another UCLA instructor and the name of a woman who was found dead in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, the Los Angeles police chief said in an interview Thursday morning on KTLA. When authorities went to Sarkar’s home in Minnesota, they found a note with names on it, indicating a list of people he wanted to kill.
Mainak Sarkar murdered Professor William Klug, a 39-year-old teacher in mechanical and aerospace engineering, allegedly over “a dispute over intellectual property.” The woman has been identified as Ashley Hasti, the Daily Beast reports. The nature of the relationship between Hasti and Sarkar is not yet known.
Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck said Thursday that Sarkar drove to Los Angeles from Minnesota with two semi-automatic pistols and killed Klug before killing himself.
When authorities found the woman’s name on the “kill list,” the LAPD contacted police in Brooklyn Park, Minn., and asked them to go to the home. Officers arrived at Hasti’s house just after midnight, and found the woman dead with a gunshot wound.
According to the L.A. police chief, the two semi-automatic pistols and extra ammunition appeared to be legally purchased.
Beck said, “He was heavily armed. He was certainly prepared to engage multiple victims with the ordinance he had at his disposal.”
The LAPD contacted police in Brooklyn Park, Minn., a city outside Minneapolis, and asked them to go to the home. When officers arrived at the house just after midnight, they found the woman dead with a gunshot wound.
“Everybody tries to look for a good reason for this,” Beck said. “There is no good reason for this. This is a mental issue, mental derangement.”
Beck said, however, that the shooting appeared to be “tied to a dispute over intellectual property.” Sarkar apparently felt that Klug had released some kind of information that harmed him, Beck said.
“That appears to be his motive,” Beck said during a news conference later Thursday. “When I say his motive, there’s nothing factual to this. We have discussed this with UCLA, and UCLA says there is no truth to this, this was a making of his own imagination.”
https://youtu.be/Wv79-fMNNVU
Sarkar’s “Everipedia” page yesterday had his ethnicity listed as Bengali and his religion as Muslim. (See screenshot at Weasel Zippers.) At some point since then, his ethnicity was changed to “Bengali or Indian,” and his religion was changed to “Hindu.” Bengal is 53.4% Muslim and 44.5% Hindu.
It is not known if Sarkar created the page for himself, or if someone else did. Apparently, anyone can create pages and/or make changes at the social media site for whatever reason.
“Everipedia lets you create a Wikipedia-style page for anyone or anything, using links, pictures, and videos to support your entry,” the site claims on its About page. “The annoying technical BS of Wikipedia has been removed to create a site that is way easier to use.”
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