A US national accused of killing Indian student Abhishek Sudhesh Bhat last week has surrendered himself to the San Bernardino police on Saturday, 30 November, PTI reported.
Eric Turner, 42, has been arrested on charges of killing Bhat (25) outside a motel where he was working part-time.
A resident of Mysuru, Abhishek was a student getting his Master’s Degree in computer science from California State University San Bernardino.
Bhat was shot by Turner outside the motel on Thursday afternoon. He was pronounced dead by the police which reached the scene soon after.
The San Bernardino Police Department said the case is being investigated. The reason why Turner shot Abhishek was not immediately known.
"The suspect was identified and turned himself in to authorities on the morning of Saturday. The motive for the shooting is under investigation," San Bernardino police Sergeant Albert Tello said in a statement.
Turner is being held without bail and is being scheduled to be produced before a local court on Tuesday.
GoFundMe Page Raises Money in Bhat’s Memory
Meanwhile, friends and family of Abhishek have set up a GoFund page, according to PTI.
Till Sunday more than 1,000 people had helped raise over 39,000 dollars.
"He was attacked while he was looking after a motel in his free time on behalf of his friend. The family grieves for him deeply," the fundraising page said.
"He had decided to go abroad to study with the only aim and ambition to help and be there for his family. He worked hard day and night to fulfill this dream. He wanted to fund his younger brother Abhishreshta's medical education fees apart from being financially available for everyone in his family," it said.
On Thursday around 11pm Abhishek had sent a message to his father.
Although the family didn’t discuss the content of the message, they said everything seemed normal. However, 15 minutes later they received a message from one of his friends Srivatsa, asking them to call him. When they called back he informed that Abhishek has been shot.
Abhishek’s father Sudhesh Chand is a yoga guru. He finished his bachelors engineering from Vidya Vikas Institute of Engineering and Technology in Mysuru, in 2016. Around one and half years ago he moved to the US to to join master’s course in Computer Science.
(With inputs from PTI.)
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