2 India rubbermen murdered in LSU home invasion

[Rasp]

2 India rubbermen murdered in LSU home invasion

2 LSU Ph.D Students Shot Dead In Their Apartment
Officials Kept Campus Open While Police Searched For Suspects

BATON ROUGE, La. (CBS) ―
Police were searching Friday for three men believed to have shot to death two graduate students late Thursday night in an apartment on the campus of Louisiana State University, the first killing on campus since the early 1990s.

Police called the attack a home invasion.

The victims, identified as Chandrasekhar Reddy Komma and Kiran Kumar Allam, both international Ph.D students, 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 men 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," Zewe said. "The other man was found near the door."

"There was no indication of forced entry," Zewe said.

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

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

The men were from India, Zewe said. Komma was working toward a doctorate degree in biochemistry and Allam was in the chemistry doctoral program.

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

A text message was sent to students registered for an emergency alert system, but not all students received it, the university said. The problem was being investigated.

"We had a small number who did not get the message," Calongne said. "But only a few of our students signed up for the notices, so we didn't just rely on it." Calongne said only 8,000 students - less than one-third of the student body - had signed up for cell-phone notification.

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.

Calongne said the murders were the first homicides on LSU's campus since the early 1990s.

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 Gov.-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.

LSU's police department and Baton Rouge Police are both working the case - they are urging students to use caution when moving about the campus, reports CBS News affiliate WWL-TV.

They also said at no time was any part of the campus under lockdown.

[IT IS EASY TO HATE A NIG]

I've got a 100 to 1 that says niggers were involved.

Sketches Released of LSU Murder Suspects

Posted: Dec 17, 2007 12:09 AM CST

Police Monday morning released artist sketches of two of the four suspects in Thursday night's murder of two LSU graduate students. Chandrasekhar Reddy Komma, 31, and Kiran Kumar Allam, 33, were found shot to death inside an apartment at the Edward Gay Complex on the edge of campus.


Police said the first suspect shown in an artist sketch (shown on the left) is believed to have been the driver. He is black and estimated to be in his 20's, police said. His hair was done in twists and rows. He was wearing a white hooded sweatshirt, police said.

The second suspect is also a black male in his 20's or 30's, who is about 5'8" - 5'10" tall, with a muscular build and a receding hairline, police said. He was wearing a white long sleeve shirt with a high collar and dark jeans.

Investigators said they now believe the suspects, 3 or 4 black males, were in an older model light-colored Oldsmobile Alero.

Police said the suspects were observed on the complex property as early as 9pm on the night of the killings, and may have been in the general area even earlier. The bodies were first discovered around 10:30pm that evening.

A task force made up of five area law enforcement agencies is investigating the murders. Sgt. Don Kelly, a spokesman for the task force, said it appears the killings were the result of a robbery attempt. "The suspects may have observed Komma arrive at the complex to visit his friend Allam, and may have followed Komma into Allam's apartment," Kelly said.

The task force is made up of investigators from the LSU Police Department, Baton Rouge Police, EBR Sheriff's Office, Louisiana State Police, and the United States Marshals Service.

http://www.wafb.com/Global/story.asp...3&nav=menu57_4

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Family Member of One Victim Speaks Out to Indian Newspaper

Posted: Dec 17, 2007 06:36 PM CST

Kiran Allam is from a small Indian village of 200 homes, where the people who live there knew him well. According to the Times of India newspaper, his father is a well-known writer of short stories.

The LSU grad student and his wife would have celebrated their wedding anniversary on Christmas Day, and as we've reported, they were expecting their first child.

The story is being widely reported in India, with common quotes from people there calling the killings "barbaric." (Welcome to the jungle!)

Kiran Allam's uncle told the Times of India, "If a developed country like the United States cannot provide security to those staying on its shores, how could it claim to be a superpower?" (In the future do not send your young, American hating, muslim children here....America is a very dangerous place. Keep them safe in India with you!)

http://www.wafb.com/Global/story.asp...2&nav=menu57_4

[Gman]

Originally Posted by IT IS EASY TO HATE A NIG

I've got a 100 to 1 that says niggers were involved.

Sorry, It's so easy, I would need at least 1000 to 1 to be interested in some of that action!!

Gman

[Whitebear]

3 (Blacks) arrested in shooting deaths of 2 LSU students


Devin Jamell Parker

Three men from Baton Rouge, including two who had been working offshore , have been arrested in the December killings of two doctoral students from India on the campus of Louisiana State University, police said Thursday. Michael Jermaine Lewis, 19; Casey Gathers, 20; and Devin Jamell Parker, 19, were being booked on two counts each of first degree murder.


Michael Lewis


Casey Gathers
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — Three young men, including two who had been working offshore in the Gulf of Mexico, have been arrested in the killing of two Louisiana State University graduate students late last year, authorities said Thursday.

Michael Jermaine Lewis, 19, and Casey Gathers, 20, were arrested Thursday and were being booked on two counts each of first-degree murder, said Gary Durham, acting chief of the LSU police department. Devin Jamell Parker, 19, was arrested Wednesday on an unrelated robbery charge, also was being booked on the murder counts.

Authorities refused to take questions after announcing the arrests at a news conference, so it wasn't clear what led police to the men or whether they had lawyers.

Col. Kirk Frith of the Vermilion Parish Sheriff's Office earlier said deputies and state police arrested one man on a fishing boat in Freshwater City and another on a dock as he left a boat in Intracoastal City.

Intracoastal City is about 75 miles southwest of Baton Rouge. Freshwater City is on the Gulf another 10 miles from the capital, but more than 35 miles by road from Intracoastal City.

The bodies of Chandrasekhar Reddy Komma and Kiran Kumar Allam, both doctoral students from India, were found late Dec. 13 in Allam's apartment on the LSU campus. Each had been shot once in the head. Komma was bound with a computer cable, and Allam was found near the door.

At the time, police described the attack as a home invasion but said there was no forced entry at the apartment complex, a cluster of three-story cinderblock buildings near a high-crime area of Baton Rouge.

Allam, 33, was a chemistry student from Hyderabad, India, and Komma was a 31-year-old biology student from Kurnool, India. The shootings shocked parents of many Indians studying in this country because the South Asian nation sends many students here each year.

The killings occurred near the end of final exams, as many of the university's 28,000 students — and possibly potential witnesses — headed home. Police said they also had to overcome reluctance to talk to investigators among some international students, who worried that doing so might damage their visa status.


Arrest Warrants Released in Murders at LSU