‘We now must carefully study our actions,’ UCLA declares
University creates a task force to examine its response to a fatal shooting on campus.
UCLA is creating a task force to examine the university’s response to last week’s deadly shooting on campus.
Administrative Vice Chancellor Michael Beck, who is already conducting a security analysis, is assembling a team “to ensure that we act upon lessons learned last week,” UCLA Chancellor Gene D. Block said in a statement.
The panel will look at several issues, including how students and faculty received emergency notifications and complaints about classroom security and door locks. Students said they couldn’t close classroom doors during the campus lockdown.
“UCLA has devoted considerable attention to crisis and disaster preparedness in recent years, including conducting active shooter drills,” Block said. “As a result, we were able to respond to last week’s events effectively. We now must carefully study our actions and reactions to determine what more we can do to protect our community from violence.”
UCLA student leaders will hold a news conference Friday to discuss efforts to end campus violence as well as provide more details about the task force.
Authorities said Mainak Sarkar, a former doctoral student, stormed into Engineering Building 4 last Wednesday, entered a small fourth-floor office and fatally shot William Klug, a highly regarded professor. Sarkar, 38, then turned the gun on himself.
The shooting triggered a campuswide lockdown as thousands of UCLA students raced for cover and holed up in classrooms, barricading doors with desks, projectors and anything else.
Detectives have been working to retrace Sarkar’s movements before the shooting.
Sarkar left a note at the shooting, asking investigators to check on his cat at his home in St. Paul, Minn., nearly 2,000 miles away.
When investigators went to his home, they found a “kill list” that named Klug, a second UCLA professor and Sarkar’s estranged wife, Ashley Hasti. The list led investigators to her body.
They believe Sarkar shot and killed Hasti in her home in Minnesota before driving to Los Angeles in his gray 2003 Nissan Sentra. The abandoned Nissan was found Friday in a Culver City neighborhood.
The second UCLA professor was not harmed.
In recent months, Sarkar had lashed out on his blog at the professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering. Police said there was little merit to a claim that the 39year-old father of two had stolen Sarkar’s computer code and given it to someone else.
UCLA has established a fund for Klug’s wife and children.