America Saturday, December 15, 2007

Two Indian students shot dead at Louisiana State University

By Arun Kumar. Washington, United States, 12:30 AM IST

Two students of Indian origin were found shot dead inside an apartment at Louisiana State University (LSU) and police Friday began searching for three men believed to be behind the crime.

The victims, Chandrasekhar Reddy Komma and Kiran Kumar Allam hailed from Kurnool and Karim Nagar in Andhra Pradesh respectively.

This is the first killing on the campus since the early 1990s. Both Komma and Allam were doctoral students, according to university authorities. Komma was working toward a doctorate degree in biochemistry and Allam was in the chemistry doctoral programme.

The two men were found inside an apartment at the Edward Gay complex after campus police received a call about 10.30 p.m. seeking medical attention. Both had been shot once in the head, according to Charles Zewe, a spokesman for the LSU System.

'From what we're being told, Komma was bound with a computer cable and shot.

The other man was found near the door,' he said. 'There was no indication of forced entry.'

The call to 911 was made by Allam's pregnant wife, who returned home and found the men dead, according to local media reports citing Srinivasa Pothakamuri, a friend of Komma.

No other incidents were reported and the campus was not locked down, though officials were cautioning students about travelling to the university Friday morning and police patrols were increased on campus.

The shootings happened as final exams were nearing completion on the 30,000-student campus and classes were not cancelled. 'Finals wrap up Saturday, but many of them are already finished,' said LSU spokeswoman Kristine Calongne. 'A lot of students have already gone home.'

The murders were the first homicides on LSU's campus since the early 1990s, she said.

A text message was sent to students registered for an emergency alert system. Officials also sent out an e-mail to all LSU e-mail address, voice mail messages and posted a notice on the LSU Web site.

Many colleges and universities implemented such emergency-alert measures after shootings at Virginia Tech University earlier this year.

The apartment building where the shootings took place is designated for married and graduate students. It is on the north edge of the campus, near one of Baton Rouge's highest-crime areas and near an elementary school.

The apartment complex, a cluster of pale yellow cinderblock, three-story buildings, is within sight of the transition offices of Louisiana Governor-elect Bobby Jindal.

'There have been some crimes there, but it's also where the LSU band practices,' Zewe said. 'It's only about two blocks from Kirby-Smith hall, where the Jindal transition office is.'

'Police actually think it was a straight home invasion and not a concern to the rest of the campus,' Calongne said.

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Most Recent Comments

  • Ambikrishnan Sunday, December 16, 2007

    America, referring to the European sections that settled there, suffers from a historical problem of bloodthirstiness, which marks Western civilization's saga of savagely killings both at individual and society/ national levels: at individual levels, murders; and at national levels, and pointless wars (against communism, dictatorship, WMD, and ever so many spuriously cooked up versions of the real problems). The American society, driven as it is by a single occupation social ideology of money and commercialism and total neglect of spirit in man, has endowed that society with the LOWEST QUALITY OF LIFE INDEX (not taking account of merely nice roads, comforts to produce disease, etc.). The Louisiana murder can be looked at in isolation with probes into the circumstances and what not, but the crimes will often involve better off people in US, including particularly Indians. Indians, think twice before going there for settling permanently or for long terms.

  • Balumuthu Sunday, December 16, 2007

    We already have a colossal number of channels dishing out inane types of romance, cricket (as that is all that India should play or enjoy) and other entertainment (mostly corruptive and disturbing to the mind of an average Indian) distorted and divergent news on same events, and very, very little wholesome fare of any kind. Damn it, crass commercial approach of the broadcasting channels with an intolerable barrage of ads, we cannot expect to know or demand what is good for us that can be made available using the TV. One need not think Ms. Kapoor's will be any exception to this rule.

  • CWH Saturday, December 15, 2007

    This is very sad. What a disgrace this is in our nation. It will probably prove that the black minority race committed these crimes. This is a very disgraceful problem we have in this nation. The liberal media and government will not address this problem. This puts every person in this nation in danger when it comes to this violent culture.