Who Is Mainak Sarkar? UCLA Murder-Suicide Shooter Identified As Engineering Graduate Student

UPDATE: 4:44 p.m. EDT — Authorities have confirmed that Ashley Hasti, the woman found dead in a Minnesota home who was on a “kill list” linked to Wednesday’s murder-suicide at UCLA, was married to the shooter, Mainak Sarkar. WCCO in Minneapolis confirmed with a local county clerk’s office that Hasti married Sarkar on June 14, 2011. The University of Minnesota told the news channel that Hasti had enrolled at the university’s medical school in 2012 after receiving a degree in Asian languages and literature from the university in 2008.

UPDATE: 2:11 p.m. EDT — The identified shooter in Wednesday’s University of California in Los Angeles murder-suicide, Mainak Sarkar, was heavily armed with two semiautomatic pistols, several magazines and was “prepared to engage in multiple victims,” Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck told reporters during a press conference Thursday. The firearms were purchased legally in Minnesota, Beck added.

Police were still looking for a 2003 grey Nissan Sentra that Mainak Sarkar is thought to have driven from his Minnesota home to California within the past few days before launching his attack, Beck said. Investigators, he said, hope the vehicle will provide more clues about the motive. A written message found Wednesday at the fatal scene was not a suicide note as was previously thought, Beck said. Instead, the "instructional note" from Sarkar asked authorities to check on his cat.

The second victim on Sarkar’s “kill list” at UCLA was not surprised that he had made the list, Beck said. The unidentified target of Sarkar reportedly knew the former graduate student had issues, though he did not think that he would necessarily act violently.

Beck refused to verify several theories about the murder, including the identity of the second victim found in Minnesota and whether or not she was a girlfriend of Sarkar."

UPDATE: 1:09 p.m. EDT — A note found at the crime scene of Wednesday’s apparent murder-suicide at the University of California in Los Angeles had the Minnesota address of the killer and requested that someone go “check on my cat,” Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck told the Los Angeles Times Thursday. The document, which was originally suspected of being a suicide note — a theory yet to be disputed or confirmed — led investigators to the Minnesota home where a “kill list” was found.

That list led investigators in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, to the house of a woman on the list who was found dead.

Brooklyn Park Police Deputy Police Chief Mark Bruley told a press conference Thursday the woman was likely killed before the UCLA shooting. She died of an apparent gunshot wound, he said. While it is early in the investigation, multiple investigators are looking into the crime, he said.

The Los Angeles police chief is scheduled to hold a news conference at 1:30 p.m. EDT.

UPDATE: 12:28 p.m. EDT — The identified gunman in Wednesday’s murder-suicide at the University of California in Los Angeles had a second professor on what has been described as a “kill list” found in his Minnesota home, Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck said during a Thursday interview with LA news station KTLA-TV. The second professor was unharmed.

Mainak Sarkar, who law enforcement says killed himself Wednesday after killing UCLA professor William Klug, also had a woman on the list who was found dead in Minnesota. A BreakingNews.com alert indicated police investigating the woman’s death said ballistic tests have established a connection to Sarkar that is “very strong.”

UPDATE: 11:55 a.m. EDT — Mainak Sarkar, the man police have identified as the gunman in Wednesday’s murder-suicide on the campus of the University of California in Los Angeles, had a “kill list” at his home in Minnesota that included the name of the UCLA professor he allegedly shot and killed, according to a series of tweets from a Los Angeles Times reporter. In addition to professor William Klug’s name, Sarkar’s list also included the name of a Minnesota woman who was found dead. The list was reportedly found during a search of the Minnesota home.

It was immediately unclear when and where the Minnesota woman was found dead, but LA Times reporter Kate Mather tweeted Los Angeles police Chief Charlie Beck said Sarkar drove from Minnesota to Los Angeles. Police were reportedly searching for the vehicle for which they have a license plate number.

Not much more information about Sarkar has been released. An employee at his most recent place of employment, in Ohio, told the International Business Times Thursday Sarkar left his job there as an engineering analyst in August 2014.

Original story:

An engineering graduate school student at the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) has been identified by authorities as the gunman behind Wednesday's murder-suicide on campus that left both the shooter and an engineering professor dead. Mainak Sarkar shot and killed William Klug before turning the gun on himself, KNBC, Los Angeles, reported.

Sarkar’s identity was released by Los Angeles Police Department Capt. Andrew Naiman, though more information about the shooter was not immediately available. The shooting led to lockdowns throughout campus and militarized patrols, including a widespread SWAT search.

Klug, a 39-year-old father of two, may have had a strained relationship with Sarkar. In what appeared to be a deleted March post on Sarkar's private blog, the alleged shooter implied that he once had a friendly relationship with Klug.

“Your enemy is your enemy. But your friend can do a lot more harm,” he apparently wrote in the post about Klug. “Be careful about whom you trust.”

The post's writings said Klug was the author's former professor and that the author viewed Klug as “a sick person.” In the post, the author urged students heading to study at UCLA to “stay away from this guy,” alleging that Klug “cleverly stole all my code and gave it to another student. He made me really sick.”

An unnamed source told the Los Angeles Times that those accusations were "absolutely untrue."

"The idea that somebody took his ideas is absolutely psychotic," the university source told the Times. "Bill was extremely generous to this student, who was a subpar student. He helped him out and interceded for him academically."

Sarkar's 2013 doctoral dissertation expressed gratitude to Klug as well for helping him and being supportive.

Klug was identified as the victim Wednesday evening. The shooting took place earlier in the day while students were giving end-of-the year presentations and taking their final exams before the summer recess. Klug and Sarkar were pronounced dead at the scene.

An apparent suicide note was found alongside the bodies at the scene.

“There is evidence that there could be a suicide note, but we do not know that,” Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck said at the time.

Classes were canceled for the remainder of the day following the shooting “out of an abundance of caution.”