UCLA killer turned violent despite foundation for success

LOS ANGELES (AP) — With a wall's worth of academic degrees from top universities and a new wife in his chosen country, Mainak Sarkar entered mid-life with a foundation of success. Then his life began to unravel.

This week he snapped, and for reasons that investigators are still trying to understand gunned down those he once held close.

Authorities say Sarkar killed his estranged wife in a Minneapolis suburb then drove across half the country to Los Angeles and shot dead the UCLA professor who had helped him earn an engineering Ph.D.

As panic began to spread on the bustling UCLA campus, he turned the gun on himself.

He left behind devastated families and a shaken university community, a "kill list" that included the name of a second UCLA professor he felt had wronged him – and many unanswered questions.

Chief among them is what led him to violence.