Before going to prison, a 22-year-old man accused of killing his college friend, who passed away from “multiple sharp force traumatic injuries sustained during an unprovoked assault,” extended his love to his family.
Ji Min Sha is seen on video being led by officers into Tippecanoe County Jail while sporting a face mask and having his hands securely secured behind his back.
Sha merely said, “I love my family,” when questioned by a reporter why he’d allegedly committed the act, before entering arrest.
Varun Manish Chheda, a 20-year-old student at Purdue University, was discovered dead in McCutcheon Hall just after midnight, and the Tippecanoe County Coroner’s Office has charged the 22-year-old with his murder.
Residents of the building said that a “scream or other loud sounds” woke them up in the middle of the night.
Tim Doty, Purdue’s director of media and public relations, told the Indianapolis Star that Sha called campus police at 12:44 in the morning.
Minutes after police arrived at the first-floor house, Sha, also known as “Jimmy,” was brought into arrest.
Once Sha was captured, Wiete said there was no longer a danger to the school.
Chheda was 10 days away from turning 21 when he graduated from the exclusive Park Tudor School in Indianapolis.
Varun Chheda, a member of the Park Tudor class of 2020, passed away tragically, as stated in a statement by Dennis Bisgaard, interim head of Park Tudor School.
Our thoughts and prayers are with his family at this trying time.
Chheda was a 2020 National Merit Scholarship Program semifinalist, according to a Facebook post. Wiete said that he was a senior data science student at Purdue.
Sha was recognized as a junior studying cybersecurity who came to the university as a South Korean overseas student.
Little more is known about Sha or his intentions in relation to the alleged crime.
According to Andrew Wu, a close friend of Chheda, “he was simply the finest person you ever wanted to hang out with.”
It’s difficult to understand why somebody would wish to harm him in this way.
Eight students were taken off the floor while police conducted their investigation, but it’s said that at the end of the day, they were permitted to return to their dormitories.
The latest murder on the campus of the university occurred in January 2014, when Cody Cousins, a teaching assistant in computer engineering, was found guilty of killing electrical engineering student Andrew Boldt.
Boldt was shot and stabbed by cousins, who were then 24 years old, when they entered the school’s Electrical Engineering Building brandishing a pistol and a knife. Cousins admitted to police that he was not involved in the crime.
Our thoughts are with the victim, his family, friends, and anybody else he may have impacted throughout his life, Wiete added.
“This is really regrettable and tragic for us right now, and I can’t even begin to understand what his family is going through,” the speaker said.
Student safety is a top priority for school officials, according to an email delivered to students by university president Mitchell Daniels.
He stated, “Our hearts and sympathies go out to all of those touched by this horrible occurrence. This is as sad an event as we can fathom occurring on our campus.”
After his passing, letters and flowers were left beside a monument on the campus of Purdue University in memory of Chheda.
“You have affected the lives of so many individuals at Purdue,” read one letter. We are all impacted by your passing.
Chheda was not familiar with all of the individuals who sent her their well wishes; one read: “I didn’t know you personally, but my heart goes out to you and your family.” The whole Purdue community misses you, and I send you and your family my very best wishes.
On the campus, there was also a candlelight vigil in memory of Chheda.