A University of Southern California graduate student has been charged with murder in last week’s fatal stabbing of a university professor who was considered an expert in neuroimaging, authorities said Tuesday.
Jonathan David Brown, 28, also faces a special allegation that he personally used a deadly and dangerous weapon, a knife, the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office said.
Brown was scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday.
Siaufung “Bosco” Tjan, 50, was killed Friday inside his university office in the Seeley G. Mudd Building, police said.
Brown was a student in Tjan’s introductory lab course, CNN affiliate KTLA-TV reported. The suspect was still at the scene when officers arrived, police said.
No motive was revealed, but police said the attack was not random. If convicted of the charges, Brown could be sentenced to a maximum of 26 years in prison.
Tjan was an expert in the field of perception, vision and vision cognition who had been affiliated with the university since 2001.
He was the co-director of the Dornsife Cognitive Neuroimaging Center, which he helped found in 2005, according to USC’s student paper, the Daily Trojan.
Tjan was memorialized at a Monday ceremony at USC’s University Park campus, according to the university webpage.
“Helping people in any possible way was his nature,” said Helga Mazyar, who was advised by Tjan. “This leaves a hole in my heart and my life.”
Tjan held a doctorate in computer science from the University of Minnesota. He was married and the father of one son, according to KTLA.
