LAist is part of Southern California Public Radio (SCPR), a member-supported public media network. Hear our news on-air at our partner site:
This is an archival story that predates current editorial management.
This archival content was written, edited, and published prior to LAist's acquisition by its current owner, Southern California Public Radio ("SCPR"). Content, such as language choice and subject matter, in archival articles therefore may not align with SCPR's current editorial standards. To learn more about those standards and why we make this distinction, please click here.
On Friday afternoon, a USC professor was fatally stabbed on campus. The psychology professor's alleged assailant was a 28-year-old student who is now in police custody.
Bosco S. Tjan, 53, had been at USC since 2001 and was an expert in perception, vision, and vision cognition. He taught in the Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, and served as co-director of the Dornsife Cognitive Neuroimaging Center. Tjan was stabbed in the chest and the L.A. Times reports that he had already died when paramedics arrived on the scene.
The attack occurred just after 4:30 p.m. yesterday inside the school's Seeley G. Mudd building on the 3600 block of McClintock Avenue, according to an LAPD spokesperson. In a letter to the USC community sent last night, USC President C.L. Max Nikias wrote that USC Department of Public Safety officers responded immediately after incident and apprehended the suspect on the scene.
City News Service reports that the suspect has been identified as USC student David Jonathan Brown, 28. He is now in police custody with bail set at $1 million. Brown is a neuroscience doctoral student, according to USC Annenberg Media. This was not a random attack; Tjan was believed to have been targeted by Brown.
"This victim was targeted by the suspect. The safety of the campus is not in question," LAPD says.
— USC Annenberg Media (@AnnenbergMedia) December 3, 2016
Nikias also offered support and resources to the community in his letter:
As the Trojan Family mourns Professor Tjan’s untimely passing, we will keep his family in our thoughts. We encourage anyone in need of support to reach out to Student Counseling Services or the Center for Work and Family Life. On Monday, our dean of religious life, Varun Soni, will bring the campus community together for reflection and prayer. We will provide additional details as soon as we have them.