2016 UCLA shooting
| 2016 UCLA shooting | |
|---|---|
| Location | Engineering Building #4 UCLA, Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Coordinates | 34°04′08″N 118°26′38″W / 34.068828°N 118.443919°WCoordinates: 34°04′08″N 118°26′38″W / 34.068828°N 118.443919°W |
| Date | June 1, 2016 Before 9:49 a.m. (PDT) |
|
Attack type
|
School shooting, murder-suicide |
| Weapons | Handgun |
| Deaths | 3 total; 2 at the school (including the perpetrator) and 1 other in Minnesota |
| Perpetrator | Mainak Sarkar |
| Motive | Personal grudges, alleged theft of intellectual property |
| Mainak Sarkar | |
|---|---|
| Born |
June 16, 1977 Durgapur, West Bengal, India |
| Died | June 1, 2016 (aged 38) Westwood, Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Cause of death | Suicide |
| Residence | Saint Paul, Minnesota |
| Nationality | Indian |
| Alma mater |
University of California, Los Angeles IIT Kharagpur |
| Occupation | Engineering analyst (former) |
| Spouse(s) | Ashley Hasti (estranged wife) |
| Parent(s) | Ira Sarkar (mother) |
On June 1, 2016, two men were killed in a murder-suicide at an engineering building at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). The gunman was identified as Indian-born 38-year-old former UCLA Ph.D student, Mainak Sarkar. The victim was William Scott Klug, an associate professor who had taught Sarkar. A woman, later identified as Sarkar's estranged wife, was found dead in Minnesota during the subsequent investigation into the shooting, and is suspected to have been killed by Sarkar before the UCLA shooting.
The shooting occurred at a fourth-floor office in a building called Engineering IV, part of the UCLA Henry Samueli School of Engineering and Applied Science.
Immediately after the shooting, Christopher Lynch, an aerospace and mechanical engineering professor who heard the gunshots, went to the office and held the door shut, after which he heard another shot and then silence. Another professor said she heard someone fall after the last shot. Lynch later said that he did not feel the gunman try to open it but suspected the gunman heard yells for the hallway to be cleared out and that police were called in. Lynch was credited for potentially saving lives during the shooting.
A campus-wide alert to avoid the area was issued via UCLA's BruinAlert system at 9:49 a.m. PDT, and Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officers were summoned to the building shortly before 10:00 a.m. PDT. When officers responded at Engineering IV and met Lynch, he gave them his office key so they could check rooms, and then left with another professor to check on students who locked themselves in the laboratories on the lower floor.
Two handguns and a suicide note were found near the two bodies. Shortly after the shooting, police sources told The Los Angeles Times that from the appearance of the bodies, a student may have killed a professor. At least three shots were fired in the shooting.
Based on initial reports of the shooting, authorities mistook it as an attempted mass shooting, prompting a massive police response. School officials put the campus on lockdown as hundreds of UCLA and LAPD officers, including SWAT officers, and officers of other agencies searched the area. A nearby hospital and three elementary schools were also put on lockdown. When the lockdown was lifted just after noon (PDT), classes at UCLA were canceled for the day. An apartment traced to the gunman was searched by police, and a description of his vehicle, which had not been located, was released.
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