Three held for killing 2 Indian students

Houston, May 23: Three African-American youths have been arrested for the brutal slaying of two doctoral students from Andhra Pradesh at the Louisiana State University campus in December 2007.

Michael Jermaine Lewis, 19, and Casey Gathers, 20 were arrested on Thursday for the December 13 killing of Chandrasekhar Reddy Komma and Kiran Kumar Allam who were found shot in the head in what the police called a home invasion of Allam’s apartment.

Devin Jamell Parker, 19, was arrested on Wednesday in an unrelated simple robbery and booked into prison, Gary Durham, acting chief of the LSU police department, said at a press conference held to announce the arrests.

All the three men, hailing from Baton Rouge, will be charged with two counts of first degree murder.

Komma, 31, was a biology student from Kurnool, and Allam, 33, was a chemistry student from Hyderabad. The shootings shocked the Indian student community in the US and sparked fears of their safety.

A multi-agency task force which included the FBI had been formed to crack the sensational case and the police had released sketches of two black men seen in the apartment complex where the students were murdered and a description of what was believed to be the getaway car. Investigators said the probe is ongoing. (PTI)