Police have arrested a Purdue university student, for allegedly killing his roommate at night, in a residence hall on the campus in West Lafayette, Indiana, although nobody knows the full story yet.
Purdue University Police Chief Lesley Wiete and the Tippecanoe County coroner’s office identified the slain student as Varun Manish Chheda, 20, an Indian senior from Indianapolis, who was studying data science.
Police authorities said the tragic incident happened in a room on the first floor of McCutcheon Hall, after which Ji Min “Jimmy” Sha, a junior cybersecurity major and international student from Korea, called 911 around 12:45 a.m. on Wednesday, telling the police that the roommate was dead.
Chheda died of “multiple sharp force traumatic injuries,” and the manner of death was a homicide, according to preliminary autopsy results.
A witness and Chheda’s friend, Arunabh Sinha, whose friends had been gaming with Chheda that night said that he had been gaming and talking with friends online through Discord on Tuesday night when they suddenly heard screaming on the call. They only woke up to the news of his death this morning.
Wiete said Sha, 22, was taken into custody minutes after the 911 call and brought to the police station for further investigation.
Video posted Wednesday shows university police escorting Sha out of a patrol vehicle in handcuffs as reporters wait for him. One of them asked him why he did it and his only reply was “I love my family.”
Wiete also noted that the 911 call came from the room where Sha and Chheda were the only students at that time.
Purdue University President Mitch Daniels said Chheda’s death was “as tragic an event as we can imagine happening on our campus,” adding that “our hearts and thoughts go out to all of those affected by this terrible event.” He also stated that the staff and school authorities are helping the students through difficult moments.
Arunabh Sinha went to school with Chheda for 12 years and said their families were also friends. He said Chheda was in his third year of college and was graduating early.
