Investigation of killings at LSU goes on; text message system fixed

BATON ROUGE, La. -- Police stepped up patrols at Louisiana State University as they investigate the killings of two doctoral students from India, while the campus remained open Saturday for the last day of exams.

Unlike other schools where shots were fired after the massacre at Virginia Tech, officials opted not to shut down LSU. Investigators believe the killings were part of an isolated home invasion, chancellor Sean O'Keefe said Friday.

LSU officials sent a campuswide alert out after midnight Friday, more than an hour and a half after the shootings. Officials sent out e-mail and voicemail messages and posted a message on the university's Web site. But the text message alert did not reach all its recipients.

A problem with the text-message service provider was corrected by afternoon, according to a brief news release late Friday from the university.

The company hired to run the text-messaging system hasn't determined how many people received the message, O'Keefe said. The news release said all current and future subscribers will now get text messages.

Chandrasekhar Reddy Komma, 31, a biochemistry student from Kurnool, and Kiran Kumar Allam, 33, a chemistry student from Hyderabad were found late Thursday after being shot in the head inside an apartment complex for married and graduate students. One was tied up with a computer cable.

Allam's pregnant wife called 911 after finding the men dead, said Srinivasa Pothakamuri, a friend of Komma. Komma, a biochemistry student, had been visiting Allam, who was in the chemistry program.

The killings were the first on campus in more than a decade.

Zewe said police were searching for three men seen leaving the area.

In Hyderabad, India, Allam's grief-stricken father said Saturday that his son sounded happy when they spoke earlier this week.

"It's unbelievable that my son is no more," Rajaiah Allam said before boarding a flight to his U.S., where his wife and two daughters were already visiting the student.

"They were so happy that their second wedding anniversary was coinciding with the arrival of their first child," said A. Padma, Kiran Kumar Allam's aunt in Gajulapally, about 125 miles north of Hyderabad.

Chandrasekhar Reddy Komma recently told his family that he was getting job offers, and also had recently married, said his brother K. Srinivas Reddy.

"Heavens have fallen on us. We never thought that such a tragedy is in store for us when everything looked so bright and promising," Srinivas Reddy said.