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Police found a handgun and several containers of gasoline while searching the car that once belonged to UCLA shooter Mainak Sarkar after it was found in Culver City, according to KTLA.
Investigators believe Sarkar drove the vehicle directly from Minnesota after allegedly killing his wife Ashley Hasti in a suburb of Minneapolis, according to the L.A. Times. The gas cans inside the vehicle were supposedly used to minimize stopping time during the drive from Minnesota to California.
On Tuesday, a day before the shooting at UCLA, a license plate reader in Denver recorded the car's plates, giving investigators a better timeline of the Sarkar's actions before his death. Police believe Sarkar used cash to purchase gasoline along the way, and possibly slept in the car to avoid detection.
Preliminary ballistics comparisons also reveal that shell casings from bullets fired in both the UCLA and Minnesota homicides "appear to match."
The car was first spotted by a passerby in the neighborhood, about a day after LAPD Chief Charlie Beck asked for help locating the vehicle. Investigators suspected the car would be located somewhere in or around Culver City owing to a CulverCityBus bus pass discovered in the shooter's pocket after his suicide.
After arriving in Los Angeles on the morning of June 1st, investigators believe Sarkar parked his car in the Culver City neighborhood—close to where he used to live while he was a student at UCLA—and took the bus to UCLA.
The investigation is ongoing, though police believe Sarkar acted alone.
