UCLA gunman Mainak Sarkar’s car has been located on Washington Place just west of Sawtelle Boulevard in Culver City. Police will be looking to see if there is additional evidence in the vehicle including if other crimes were committed en route from Minnesota to Los Angeles. Police cordoned off the area surrounding the vehicle and dispatched a bomb squad to search it.
Investigators have been looking for the silver-gray Nissan Sentra, registered in Sarkar’s home state of Minnesota, since he fatally shot a UCLA professor in a campus office shortly before 10 a.m. Wednesday.
The 2003 Nissan was located by Los Angeles police on Washington Place just west of Sawtelle Boulevard, according to a desk officer at the Culver City Police Department.
A bomb squad was summoned to examine the car, according to Los Angeles Police Department Officer Liliana Preciado, who said the vehicle was located about 1:50 p.m.
Police say Sarkar drove from Minnesota to California after killing his estranged wife and before killing one of his former professors, William S. Klug, then himself.
A second UCLA professor was on a “kill list” found in Sarkar’s home in St. Paul, Minnesota, but he was not harmed, police said. That educator’s name has not been released.
Los Angeles police Chief Charlie Beck said Thursday that Sarkar, 38, likely killed the woman in Minnesota several days ago, then drove to California. Beck said at the time that he believes the car does not present any danger, but police today were acting with an abundance of caution.
The woman who was named on the so-called kill list and whose body was found at her home in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota, was 31-year-old medical student Ashley Hasti. She and Sarkar were married on June 14, 2011, but they later separated, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported.
At UCLA, the engineering school will hold a vigil at 4 p.m. today at the Court of Sciences to remember Klug, a 39-year-old El Segundo resident and professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering who was reported to be highly popular with students and colleagues.