The shocking UCLA murder-suicide took another grisly turn Thursday when police revealed the man who fatally shot an engineering professor and then killed himself on the Westwood campus was a Minnesota resident who likely killed an ex-girlfriend in that state.
Authorities were led to the woman’s body in Minnesota by reading a note the heavily armed killer left at the UCLA shooting scene asking that his cat in Minnesota be taken care of.
Los Angeles Police Department Chief Charlie Beck said officials in Minnesota also found a “kill list” in Mainak Sarkar’s home in St. Paul and it included three names: the woman in Minnesota; UCLA professor William Scott Klug, who was killed Wednesday; and another UCLA professor, who was not injured. Beck declined to give the names of the dead woman or the other professor.
A neighbor in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, identified the dead woman to the Minneapolis Star Tribune newspaper as Ashley Hasti, who may have been Sarkar’s ex-girlfriend. The newspaper published a photo on its website of Hasti and Sarkar together.
Beck said Sarkar, 38, likely killed the woman in Minnesota several days ago, then drove to California in a 2003 gray Nissan Sentra with the Minnesota license plate 720KTW. The car is still being sought in the UCLA area. He said although believe the car does not present any danger, he urged anyone who spots it to call authorities and not approach it.
Beck said Sarkar was heavily armed at UCLA, carrying two semiautomatic pistols — one that was used in the murder-suicide, and another in his backpack. He was also carrying multiple ammunition magazines and loose rounds of ammunition, indicating he was prepared to carry out more violence.
According to Beck, a note found by the bodies of Sarkar and Klug in a small office in UCLA’s Boelter Hall “doesn’t refer to suicide,” but it included an instruction to check on Sarkar’s cat — leading authorities to his Minnesota residence and the “kill list,” ultimately leading to the discovery of the woman’s body...
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