LOS ANGELES (AP) — Four teenagers have been arrested on suspicion of murder in the killing of a Chinese student who attended the University of Southern California, Los Angeles police said Monday.
Jonathan DelCarmen, 19, and Andrew Garcia, 18, along with a 17-year-old boy and a 16-year-old girl, were being held for investigation of murder with special circumstances and other charges, police spokesman Andy Smith said.
A 14-year-old girl was also arrested on suspicion of a separate robbery, Smith said. He said police believe she had some connection to the killing and were investigating the extent of her involvement. Police did not know whether the suspects had attorneys, and contact information for family or associates could not be found.
Xinran (SHING’-rahn) Ji, 24, was found dead at about 7 a.m. Thursday in his off-campus apartment. The graduate engineering student was walking home at 12:45 a.m. from a study group when he was attacked and robbed, Smith said. The victim managed to walk back to his apartment and left a trail of blood from where he was attacked.
Smith said investigators believe the suspects went to Dockweiler Beach and committed another robbery before DelCarmen and Garcia were arrested. He said they could not disclose how the suspects were connected to the student’s death because the investigation was still ongoing.
In 2012, two Chinese graduate students were shot during a robbery near campus. One of two men charged with those killings has pleaded guilty to murder.