Two LSU students killed execution-style, updates from LSU and South Asian communities

by cynthia yoo | December 14, 2007 at 01:29 pm

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The tragedy sparked huge debate in South Asian blogs, including this post from Sepia Mutiny and from Uber Desi

While many commentators expressed their sadness and grief for the victims and their families, others expressed fear and anxiety.

"Many of you who sent this story in noted that you were especially
affected by it because you are DBDs who are currently in grad school,
just like Komma and Allam were. Just last week, one of our readers in
Bangalore asked me if America was “so violent”; he was thinking about
pursuing a degree in this country but he was worried about racism and crime." (from Sepia Mutiny)

Others were critical over the actions of the LSU authorities.

An LSU student commented on Facebook that there is continuing controversy over the actions of the LSU authorities: "The LSU Reveille provided a soundboard for reader opinions. The majority of comments expressed dismay, discontent, and disgust with the
LSU officials' "procedure." Consequently, over a hundred opinions have
been deleted and/or removed in the last two hours. Ultimately, public
outcry has been extinguished."

The students' criticisms were in reaction to an email sent out to students from the LSU authorities that stated in part: "The tragic homicides that took place on campus on Thursday evening provided an opportunity for the university to test its new emergency
text-message system. Thanks to feedback from members of the LSU
community, university officials learned that not everyone who had
registered their cellphones with the system received a message."

Following the email statement, the LSU student newspaper has been inundated by protests from students.

"Raj, possibly an Indian, wrote in: “LSU, that was by far the most callous statement I have heard in my five years here. The family deserves an apology. The most improper word
at the least favourable time. I am just speechless. May their souls
rest in peace and God give their families the strength to overcome the
sudden loss. Iam looking forward for the press conference."

Another student, using the initials, "msv", added:"What is wrong with the
university administration? They issue an irresponsible statement using
words like"opportunity" when two of their students have been killed? How
is it they are testing a system at the expense of such a terrible
tragedy and the test fails. I am not sure how the HR (human resources
department) functions at the university but if this were in the corporate
world, the person(s) issuing such callous statements will be subject to
serious action.

“Hope the university retracts their message and frames in a more sensitive
way. I also hope it issues an apology to the families of the victims
and the entire universitycommunity.” (from The Telegraph)

Uber Desi also picked up on the story:

"...the student newspaper of LSU has been inundated with
complaints. The particular story is no longer on the front page of the
student news paper and digging for half an hour, proved useless. All we
managed to unearth from our history was the story with partial comments.

Hoping that I could get the LSU Reville to cough up more
information on why they had “broken” their commenting system on one
particular news story I called the Editor In Chief Mr. Justin
Fritscher, only for someone else to answer the phone. “Yes our system
is broken and we are trying to fix it, we are not sure about when and
if the comments will be back” (paraphrased) was the answer."

UPDATE 17:00 PHOTOS OF DECEASED KIRAN KUMAR ALLAM and CHANDRASEKHAR REDDY KOMMA from Facebook:

Photo 1 Photo 2 Photo 3 Photo 4

Photo 5 Photo 6

UPDATE 14:50 LSU STUDENTS RESPOND AND TAKE ACTION

LSU students have responded to the tragic deaths of Chandrasekhar Reddy
Komma and Kiran Kumar Allam by creating a memorial Facebook group:
http://utoronto.facebook.com/group.php?gid=9235091270

Students described Komma and Allam as great teachers (they were PhD students at
LSU), with one student saying: "Komma was my teacher for Biology 1005
lab, and he was one of my favorite faculty members, hands down. They
will be missed."

Students also worried over the fact that some never received the emergency text message bulletin from the University.

The creator of the group, Ahmed AlTammer spoke to the need to pressure the
University to take proper steps in preventing further violence on
campus:

"...it is our responsibility as students and a community to unite and support this case and take the proper action to prevent that from happening again and try to make the Authority to put COPS in Campus and effective ALARM system simply because IT COULD HAVE BEEN ME OR YOU AT THAT INCIDENT or that killer would've done like what the VT incident !! I received an e-mail 3 hours after the incident !!!"

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The two victims, Chandrasekhar Reddy Komma and Kiran Kumar Allam were discovered by Allam's pregnant wife on Thursday evening.

The men were each shot once in the head, said Charles Zewe, an LSU system spokesman. Komma was bound with a computer cable, and Allam was found near the door. O'Keefe said that nothing appeared to be stolen, but police were still doing an inventory of the apartment.
Three men were seen leaving the area, and police were searching for them Friday, Zewe said.

Police patrols were increased on the 30,000-student campus Friday and students were told to be cautious, but the university was not locked down. Students were taking the last of their final exams, and many had already left for the semester.

The decision not to lock down the campus was made by police after they determined it was an isolated incident and would not spread to other areas of the campus, LSU Chancellor Sean O'Keefe said at a Friday morning news conference.

Since Virginia Tech, colleges and universities have often decided to lock down the campus after reports of gunfire. At the University of Memphis, university officials decided to cancel class the day after football player Taylor Bradford was shot this fall. Authorities were uncertain at the time whether it was a targeted or random attack.

The apartment building where the shootings took place is designated for married and graduate students. A cluster of pale yellow cinderblock, three-story buildings, it sits on the edge of the campus, close to one of Baton Rouge's highest-crime areas.

The complex has a tall fence separating it from the off-campus neighborhood, but the apartments have no gates or surveillance cameras. Resident Omer Soysal said attempted break-ins and holdups are common at the complex.

"When it is dark, I tell my kids, 'Don't go outside,'" said Soysal, 37, a third-year Ph.D. candidate in computer science.

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urbano411

at 14:16 on December 14th, 2007

cynthia yoo, thanks for getting this story out so quickly. It will now show up on the home page for four hours. If new developments justify it, I'll renew this flag for another cycle.