On Thursday, the day following the UCLA murder-suicide, a Minnesota woman's name was found on the shooter's "kill list." L.A. Police Chief Charlie Beck reported that she had been found dead Thursday with gunshot wounds. Authorities have not disclosed the woman's name, nor her relationship to the shooter, who has been identified as 38-year-old Mainak Sarkar, a former doctoral student at the school.
Update: A neighbor identified the Minnesota woman as Ashley Hasti, a student at the University of Minnesota Medical School. Hasti lived in Brooklyn Park and has been photographed with Sarkar in the past.
According to KTLA's interview with Beck, Sarkar's "kill list" was found in his Minnesota home. The LAPD believes he drove from his home state to Los Angeles to carry out the murder of Professor William Scott Klug, associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering, on Wednesday morning. A suicide letter was found near the crime scene in an engineering building on the south side of UCLA's campus, but its contents have not been revealed. Another professor's name was on the list, but he is believed to be alive and safe.
A March blog post authored with the shooter's name has provided authorities with clues as to why Sarkar murdered Klug. In the post, which was published to a WordPress site called LongDarkTunnelblog, the author accused his former professor of stealing his computer code and giving it to someone else:
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 ... My name is Mainak Sarkar. I was this guy’s PhD student. We had personal differences. He cleverly stole all my code and gave it another student. He made me really sick. Your enemy is your enemy. But your friend can do a lot more harm. Be careful about whom you trust. Stay away from this sick guy.
A source from the university told The Los Angeles Times that Sarkar's claims were false. The source explained, "The idea that somebody took his ideas is absolutely psychotic." The shooter was one of six doctoral students in Klug's research group in computational biomechanics at UCLA. Alan Garfinkel, professor of integrative biology and physiology, told The Times that he was devastated by the loss of his colleague. "You cannot ask for a nicer, gentler, sweeter and more supportive guy than William Klug," he added. Klug left behind a wife and two children.
Details surrounding the female victim in Minnesota will be released in the future. In the meantime, authorities are continuing to search for the Sarkar's vehicle, a 2003 gray Nissan Sentra with Minnesota license plate No. 720KTW.
