USC campus shooting: Victims identified as Chinese graduate students
The University of Southern California (USC) campus in Los Angeles, California.
The two victims in a fatal shooting near the University of Southern California campus early this morning were identified as graduate students from China, Ying Wu and Ming Qu, according to the Associated Press.
Their exact ages were not clear, though both were in their 20s. Their hometowns were not known either. They were international students studying electrical engineering, according to the university.
Early this morning, the university said the Los Angeles police had launched an investigation into the shooting of a man and a woman, without releasing their names.
USC campus police Captain David Carlisle told the AP that the 20-year-old woman was a student at the university. It was not initially clear whether the man was also a student.
Police said the couple were sitting in the luxury car when the gunman fired, shattering the windows. Ying Wu, the woman, was slumped in the front passenger seat. Ming Qu, though wounded, managed to get out of the car and run to a nearby house where he pounded on the door, pleading for help, said police Cmdr. Andrew Smith.
The shooting reportedly took place around 1 a.m. in LA's West Adams area, near some USC student housing.
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Police said the charcoal-gray BMW was riddled with several bullets and one window was broken when it was found on the 2700 block of Raymond Avenue, according to the local KABC radio.
Authorities told KABC and AP that one possible motive for the crime is a carjacking gone wrong.
The USC campus police are working closely with LAPD to investigate.
The school released a statement today warning students to "be mindful of their surroundings."
Ryan Wei, another electrical engineering graduate student from China, told The Los Angeles Times that people kept mistaking him to be one of the victims because he himself drives a BMW. He said, "I was so shocked. Coming here, I thought the worse that could happen was a robbery, not taking someone’s life."