The St. Paul man who carried out a murder-suicide at UCLA left a “kill list” at his home — and that led authorities to a woman’s body in Brooklyn Park.
Mainak Sarkar, 38, drove to Los Angeles from Minnesota with two semiautomatic handguns and killed Professor William Klug before killing himself Wednesday, according to Los Angeles authorities.
When law enforcement officials searched Sarkar’s North End home in St. Paul, they found a “kill list” with the names of Klug, another UCLA professor and a woman. The woman, a University of Minnesota medical student, was found early Thursday, shot dead in her Brooklyn Park home. The other professor is safe.
MINNESOTA VICTIM IDENTIFIED
The woman was identified Thursday as Ashley Hasti by a neighbor in Brooklyn Park who asked not to be identified. A 31-year-old woman with that name is listed as living at the house. Records indicate Sarkar also previously resided at the Brooklyn Park house.
Hennepin County records state that Hasti was married to Sarkar on June 14, 2011. Whether they were still married is unknown.
A former graduate student in engineering, Sarkar’s dispute with Klug appears to be tied to Sarkar thinking the professor released intellectual property that harmed him, according to L.A. authorities.
Sarkar shot the 39-year-old Klug on the fourth floor of the Engineering IV building on the University of California-Los Angeles campus and then took his own life. A semiautomatic handgun was found there as well as a note telling those who found him to care for his cat back in Minnesota, according to the Los Angeles Daily News.
At a news conference Thursday, Brooklyn Park Deputy Police Chief Mark Bruley said officials believe the woman found dead in the Brooklyn Park home was killed before the UCLA shooting took place. They believe she died of a gunshot wound.
Police discovered her body shortly after midnight after authorities in California asked them to do a welfare check at the residence.
Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck said it appeared that she had been dead “maybe a couple of days.” Sarkar then drove his car to Los Angeles, police said.
St. Paul officers executed a search at an apartment at 1052 Agate St. at 8:45 p.m. Wednesday at the request of another law enforcement agency, said Steve Linders, a St. Paul police spokesman.
A suspicious package was found in a car near the building, and the St. Paul police bomb squad responded to “render it safe,” Linders said.
Beck said the St. Paul investigators found extra ammunition and a box for one of two pistols found at UCLA, as well as the “kill list” with the three names. Both guns had been legally purchased in Minnesota.
HASTI’S BACKGROUND
Hasti enrolled in the University of Minnesota’s Medical School in 2012, according to university officials. Hasti was scheduled to attend classes during this summer’s term.
Hasti graduated from the U’s undergraduate program in 2008 with a degree in Asian languages and literature.
Hasti graduated from a post-baccalaureate pre-medical program at Scripps College in Claremont, Calif., in 2010, according to a spokesman with the school.
She also previously attended school at North Hennepin Community College in Brooklyn Park. A spokesman there said she was enrolled as a part-time student from 2003 to 2006 and again from 2011 to 2012. She did not earn a degree from the school.
Hasti’s uncle, Mark Fitzgibbons, told NBC News that the couple was together for only a couple of years and separated several years ago.
“He was a nice, quiet young man,” Fitzgibbons said. “I don’t know what happened to make him do this. I am just as shocked as everyone else.”
“Ashley was a very bright girl, a very, very smart girl,” her great-aunt Charlane Bertsch said. “And she was just so close to being a doctor now.”
Bertsch, of Minot, N.D., said Hasti was funny and did stand-up comedy, a talent she started developing as a child at family gatherings.
“She’ll be dearly missed by all of her family,” Bertsch said. “We’re a large family and it’s just a shock to all of us.”
Bertsch said she had never met Sarkar, wasn’t sure how they got together and didn’t know if they were still married. She said she interacted with her niece on Facebook, and Hasti never seemed to mention him.
“They weren’t living together,” she said. “I never saw them together on Facebook. Her Facebook photos were either her sister or people that she worked with.”
Hasti was adept at picking up languages and traveled to India about 10 years ago, her cousin Stassa Lupton said. Lupton wasn’t sure if Hasti met Sarkar there or if she met him in California. She said few people in the extended family had ever met Sarkar.
Lupton said an out-of-town uncle recently was hospitalized in Minneapolis. She said Hasti, who lost her mother to cancer, visited him daily, telling jokes and brightening his day.
“Ashley’s life wasn’t just about Ashley. It was about everyone else,” Lupton said.
Neighbors on the 2400 block of Pearson Parkway described the Hasti family as friendly but quiet people who kept to themselves.
One neighbor said Ashley Hasti lived by herself at the house, and her father lived in another location. Another said she just saw the father at the house.
“I didn’t know she was living there,” said neighbor Holly Olson.
“It’s so sad. I wish we could’ve prevented it,” said a woman who lives across the street from the family and who asked not to be identified.
Neighbors said police who went to the home Thursday morning towed a white car that had a broken window from the family’s driveway. They said that the police apparently entered the house through a broken window near a back deck.
None of the neighbors seemed to know anything about Sarkar.
“The upsetting part is somebody is gone who had her whole life ahead of her,” said neighbor Terry Andrew.
Gordy Aune Jr., neighborhood watch block captain on Pearson Parkway, said Wayne Hasti’s wife died two or three years ago, and that Wayne and Ashley were the only ones living at the house.
“They have had visitors,” Aune said. But he said he did not know if Sarkar was at the house previously.
Aune said Wayne Hasti owned more than one property and split his time between places.
SARKAR’S BACKGROUND
Sarkar is listed on a UCLA website as a member the Klug Research Group in Computational Biomechanics at UCLA, according to a Klug Research Group publication.
Sarkar had disparaged Klug online and the professor knew of his contempt, but police have not uncovered any death threats, Beck said. The writings contained “some harsh language, but certainly nothing that would be considered homicidal,” he said.
A blog post written in March by someone identifying himself as Sarkar said he had personal differences with Klug.
“He cleverly stole all my code and gave it (to) another student,” the post says. “He made me really sick.”
The blog continues: “Your enemy is your enemy. But your friend can do a lot more harm. Be careful about whom you trust. Stay away from this sick guy.”
Los Angeles law enforcement officials said UCLA officials said it was all in Sarkar’s imagination.
Sarkar and Klug were once close. In his 2013 dissertation about using engineering to understand the human heart, the student thanked the professor “for all his help and support. Thank you for being my mentor.”
Sarkar, who graduated with a doctorate from UCLA in 2013, had also graduated from Stanford University with a master’s degree.
Prior to Stanford, he was a 2000 graduate of the Indian Institute of Technology in Kharagpur with a degree in aerospace engineering, according to the Hindustan Times.
“Mainak was a brilliant student. He remained busy with studies and did not talk or socialise much. As far as I remember, he was from Kolkata,” a professor of the aerospace department of IIT-Kharagpur told the Hindustan Times. The professor was not authorized to speak to the media.
According to his online profile, Sarkar worked for Infosys in Bengaluru from 2000 to 2001 before heading to the United States, according to the Hindustan Times. He became a permanent U.S. resident in May 2014.
Minnesota court records show he had traffic and parking offenses, but nothing criminal. A parking citation from Apple Valley in November and a case from 2006 indicated Sarkar listed the Agate Street apartment in St. Paul as his address. Seat-belt and parking violations from 2014 showed a Minneapolis address for Sarkar.
Sarkar worked remotely as an engineering analyst for Endurica LLC based out of Ohio for less than two years until he left in August 2014, according to an employee with the company.
Sarkar’s name was listed on a mailbox at the St. Paul apartment building at Cook Avenue and Agate Street. It is unclear how long he had lived there.
“It’s very scary,” said a woman whose boyfriend lives across the hall when she heard Thursday about Sarkar’s alleged role in the UCLA and Brooklyn Park shootings.
The woman, who would only identify herself as Stacy, said she had noticed Sarkar in the building in the last month and last saw him about a week ago. He was headed to his apartment, she said “hi” to him and he nodded his head.
Stacy said she used to see cats wandering around the building and she believed they were Sarkar’s because he would leave his apartment door cracked.
CAMPUS MOURNS
In California, the UCLA campus reopened Thursday, offering counseling to distressed students and faculty. Wednesday’s shooting prompted a two-hour lockdown on the campus.
Klug was a father of two and associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering. He was recalled by current and former students has leading classes that were fairly difficult, yet rewarding.
Andy Lachtman, an online student in Arlington, Va., called Klug a “great teacher and an inspiration,” according to the Daily Breeze of Torrance, Calif.
A memorial fund had raised more than $33,000 as of Thursday for Klug’s family.
Meanwhile, police asked for the public’s help in finding the car Sarkar drove from Minnesota to California, which they hoped would yield more evidence. It is a gray 2003 Nissan Sentra with Minnesota license plates 720-KTW.
Pioneer Press reporter Jaime DeLage contributed to this report, which also contains information from the Associated Press and Los Angeles Times.