Anger over alleged stealing of his computer code and despondency over grades are being identified as the motives that led a graduate student to kill UCLA engineering professor William Klug and then take his own life.
Early Thursday, the Los Angeles Police Department identified the gunman as Mainak Sarkar, according to ABC News.
KNBC reported that the gunman was an “engineering graduate student who apparently had a strained relationship with Klug and may have also been upset over grades.” A gun and note were found by the bodies of Klug and the gunman. Police did not reveal the contents of the note.
“Investigators are focusing on his grades and what’s being described as a ‘longer-standing’ poor relationship between the two men,” ABC reported.
The Los Angeles Times, quoting LAPD sources, identified Sarkar as “a former doctoral student who had accused the victim of stealing his computer code and giving it to someone else.”
The Times also reported that Sarkar had attacked Klug in a March 10 social media post.
“William Klug, UCLA professor is not the kind of person when you think of a professor. He is a very sick person. I urge every new student coming to UCLA to stay away from this guy,” Sarkar wrote. “He made me really sick. Your enemy is my enemy. But your friend can do a lot more harm. Be careful about whom you trust.”
A university source told the Times the accusation was “absolutely untrue.”
“The idea that somebody took his ideas is absolutely psychotic,” the source said.
“”I’m just outraged,” said Renjie Li, a student. “I’m mad that someone would do that to a young professor who just started his career at UCLA. It’s just a shame.”
H/T: New York Post