Police believe that Mainak Sarkar forced his way into his wife Ashley Hasti’s house, shot her dead and then travelled over 3,000 kilometres to UCLA by bus to kill his former professor William Klug
Mainak Sarkar, the man behind the UCLA murder-suicide, seems to have forced his entry into his estranged wife's home before shooting her dead and boarded a bus to the University of California at Los Angeles to kill his former college professor, authorities said on Saturday.
The 38-year-old IIT-Kharagpur alumnus is believed to have broken into the Brooklyn Park residence in the nearby town where Ashley Hasti, who he married in 2011, lived. Officers found Sarkar's car, a grey 2003 Nissan Sentra with Minnesota licence plate 720KTW, parked in his old neighbourhood. They also found a broken window they believe he used to enter Hasti's home.
Police had asked for the public's help to find the car, and it was spotted by a bicyclist parked on a residential street on the city's west side.
A bomb squad that inspected the vehicle found no explosives but police say a handgun and cans of gasoline were in the trunk. Authorities said the fuel was apparently there so Sarkar did not have to stop on his trip from Minnesota, where he killed 31-year-old Hasti a few days ago. Initially, there were conflicting reports about the status of their marriage but police on Saturday confirmed Hasti was still legally Sarkar's wife when she died of multiple gunshot wounds. Sarkar and Hasti had been separated for some time and lived separately, they said.
According to Los Angeles police, Sarkar finished his over 3,000 kilometres-long deadly journey by bus as he knew the bus route to the University of California, Los Angeles where he killed 39-year-old engineering professor William Klug, who he had accused of stealing his computer code and giving it to someone else.
Police have suggested that Sarkar, who later turned the gun on himself, had mental issues. The motive for the twin murder and suicide that has shocked the Indian-American community nationwide is not very clear so far but authorities have said Sarkar acted of his own will for the shooting.
"This was simply him," Captain William Hayes of the Los Angeles Police Department told reporters. "We have not been able to determine any trigger event that would lead to this or the murder of his wife," he said in response to a question. There is no evidence that Sarkar committed any other crime.
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