A former doctoral student who shot and killed a UCLA professor, leading to a daylong campus lockdown, had a "kill list" that included the names of the teacher and another victim, who was found dead Thursday morning in Minnesota, authorities said.

The victim in Minnesota was his estranged wife, her uncle told NBC News Thursday. 

Police identified the gunman as Mainak Sarkar, 38, who apparently had a strained relationship with Professor William Klug. Sarkar believed Klug had stolen his computer code, law enforcement sources told NBC News.

Sarkar detailed his grievance in two blog posts about Klug, most recently on March 10, sources told NBC News. 

"William Klug, UCLA professor is not the kind of person when you think of a professor. He is a very sick person," Sarkar wrote, according to the sources. "I urge every new student coming to UCLA to stay away from this guy."

In the post, Sarkar identified himself as a former Ph.D. student of Klug's and said the two had "personal differences."

"He cleverly stole all my code and gave it to another student. He made me really sick," Sarkar allegedly wrote. "Your enemy is your enemy. But your friend can do a lot more harm. Be careful about whom you trust."

LAPD Chief Charlie Beck said in a news conference Thursday police believe the blog to be Sarkar's but have not been able to verify it.

Ashley Hasti's uncle identified her as the victim in Minnesota, NBC News reported.

Hasti and Sarkar were married in June 2011. A medical student, Hasti graduated with her bachelor's degree in 2008 from the University of Minnesota.

Beck said information was recovered at the shooter's Minnesota residence that led authorities to believe Sarkar is linked to Hasti's death.

The names of Hasti, Klug's and a third individual — another UCLA professor — were on a "kill list" found at the shooter's home, police said.

Chief Charlie Beck did not identify the other professor, but said he is unharmed and safe.

Beck said detectives had spoken to UCLA officials about Sarkar's stolen code assertion, and concluded it was unfounded.

"This was a making of his own imagination," Beck said.

The code in question was developed as part of a major, multi-year, multi-discipinary collaborative research project to develop a computer simulation of the human heart -- a "virtual heart" -- said life sciences and medical school Professor Alan Garfinkel.

Garfinkel and Klug were among the collaborators, and Sarkar, then Klug's doctoral student, worked under them on the project, according to Garfinkel.

During a phone interview with NBC4, Garfinkel acknowledged an issue arose at one point, but declined to discuss the specifics. He said he had not had any contact with Sarkar since he received his Ph.D. in 2013 and moved away and into the workforce.

"If you had asked me two days ago, I would have said there's no issue here, guy's gone, it was happily resolved," Garfinkel said.

Thursday, Garfinkel met at length with detectives. He declined to say if he is the other professor on Sarkar's "kill list." Garfinkel said he was on campus Wednesday, but not in his office.

Garfinkel expressed his admiration for Klug, both as a scientist and as a friend, describing him as "huge-hearted, a sweet and kind man," and was stunned that Klug had been targeted.

Web postings to the effect that Sarkar had been mistreated by faculty and had his PhD unnecesssarily delayed are not true, Garfinkel said, citing his desire to set the record straight when he agreed to speak with NBC4.

Investigators believe Sarkar had traveled to UCLA with the intent of killing both professors on the list.

"He went to kill two professors, but could find only one," Beck said Thursday at a midmorning news briefing at LAPD headquarters.

"He was certainly prepared to engage multiple victims," Beck said of Sarkar, who was armed with two semiautomatic pistols, multiple magazines and several rounds of ammunition.

Police found a note near the bodies of Klug and Sarkar, asking the reader to check on Sarkar's cat in Minneapolis, Beck said. Investigators searching his Minneapolis residence found the "kill list," which led them to Hasti's home in neighboring Brooklyn Park.

Hasti was found dead of a gunshot wound early Thursday. Police believe Sarkar killed her prior to the UCLA murder-suicide, then traveled to Los Angeles in a gray 2003 Nissan Sentra, according to Beck.  

Sarkar studied at Stanford University and the Indian Institute of Technology in Kharagpur, according to his LinkedIn page, before enrolling at UCLA. Sarkar came to the U.S. in 2001 on a foreign student visa to pursue graduate studies, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The department's electronic records show he obtained three student visas between 2001 and 2008 to engage in masters and doctoral programs in the U.S. and was granted permanent residence in May 2014.

The search continued Thursday for the Nissan Sentra, which has Minnesota license plates 720 KTW. The vehicle might contain evidence to help investigators establish a motive for the slayings, Beck said.

Sarkar is suspected of shooting and killing Klug — a 39-year-old father of two and associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering from El Segundo — in an engineering building at UCLA. Their bodies were found together in an office with a gun nearby, Beck said. 

The shooting led to a SWAT search and a daylong campus closure, with panicked students seeking a safe place to hide. No one else was hurt.

Police initially received reports of an active shooter on the Westwood campus, which has an undergraduate enrollment of around 43,000 students, prompting a campus-wide lockdown and massive law enforcement response.

About two hours later, students learned the shooting had been a murder-suicide and police said there was no threat to the campus.

"I'm just outraged," said Renjie Li, who took a class from Klug. "I'm mad that someone would do that to a young professor who just started his career at UCLA. It’s just a shame."

According to his biography on the UCLA website, Klug received his Ph.D. from Caltech in 2003, his master’s of science from UCLA in 1999 and his bachelor’s from Westmont College in 1998. Klug also led the Klug Research Group in Computational Biomechanics at UCLA.

Classes resumed Thursday ahead of next week's final exams. A candlelight vigil is scheduled for Thursday night at UCLA.

Klug's wife, Mary Elise Klug, issued a statement through UCLA Thursday evening:

"During this extremely difficult time for our family, we are grateful for the tremendous outpouring of support. This is an indescribable loss. Bill was so much more than my soulmate. I will miss him every day for the rest of my life. Knowing that so many others share our family’s sorrow has provided a measure of comfort.

"That said, we are a very private family, and we need time to heal and recover from this senseless tragedy. At this time, we ask the media to please respect our family’s privacy in and around our home, school and local community during the days and weeks ahead, especially for the sake of my children."

A tractor-trailer carrying alcohol rolled over on Interstate eastbound in Middlebury by exit 17 and state police said no serious injuries are reported.

They are asking drivers to use caution in the area, reduce speed and expect delays.

No information was immediately available. 

Zoo designers already use architectural elements to try to keep children from going over railings into exhibits, but the breach at the Cincinnati Zoo's gorilla enclosure over the weekend has prompted experts to look at whether changes are needed.

Today's designs leave 4 feet between a railing and a moat so that anyone falling from the railing will not land in the moat. Railings themselves sometimes have uneven pickets to make it difficult for anyone to sit on top of them.

"That 4-foot space, that’s come about over time because there have been so many incidents of parents setting a child on the railing," said Patrick Janikowski, a principal of PJA Architects and Landscape Architects, a Seattle-based firm specializing in zoo design.

"I don't want to say it’s designed for stupidity, but that's the reason that that is designed that way, as a secondary precaution against falling into the moat," he said.

The latest tragedy, in which a 17-year-old, 450-pound western lowland gorilla named Harambe was killed after a boy got into its enclosure, has driven the Cincinnati Zoo and zoo designers to consider changes in animal exhibits.

"Every time something likes this happens, there's a re-evaluation and a re-look to make sure each facility is up to speed," said Nevin Lash of Ursa International, an Atlanta-based design company.

"We're always trying to keep it exciting but safe," he said.

The 3-year-old boy climbed over a fence and fell more than 10 feet into the moat surrounding the gorillas’ enclosure over the weekend, NBC News reported. Harambe was shot after he grabbed the child, a decision zoo officials are defending in the face of outrage from animal rights groups and others. Zoo officials said the endangered gorilla was so large it could have hurt the child even without intending to.

The Cincinnati Zoo has insisted that the Gorilla World exhibit, the first "bar-less" outdoor gorilla habitat in the country when it opened in 1978, is safe. The zoo's director, Thane Maynard, told The Associated Press the breach was the first.

The Cincinnati enclosure is now the industry standard, its open design common in zoos across the country, with exhibits protected by a combination of glass, netting and moats, designers say.

For example, Zoo Atlanta, which has the nation's largest gorilla collection, has several outdoor viewing spots designed to give visitors the feeling of being close though they are separated by a series of safety barriers, the AP found.

The Smithsonian's National Zoo in Washington has an indoor area with glass walls and an outdoor habitat surrounded by barriers made of glass panes, metal and metal frames filled in with mesh. Metal railings and large planters also stand between the viewing area.

But gorillas at the Columbus Zoo are in two enclosed areas behind glass and mesh. The approach is an exception to the open enclosure in Cincinnati, a spokeswoman, Patty Peters, told the AP.

PJA Architects designs railings with vertical pickets of different lengths so parents cannot set their children on the top railing and adults cannot sit on them. Still a child likely could climb over it, Janikowski said.

"If they can grab the pickets and pull themselves up, if it's an energetic child," he said. "I would think that because they're vertical, they can't get a foothold anywhere except at the bottom rail. You can still get over it but I think it's a lot of effort. That's why we use it."

Janikowski said that the firm would review the design but doubted it would be changed.

"We think our railings have been tested over time," he said.

This was not the first time a child has gotten into an exhibit. A 5-year-old fell into a gorilla enclosure at the Jersey Zoo in the United Kingdom 30 years ago, knocking himself unconscious. A male gorilla, Jambo, stroked his back until zoo keepers were able to get to the boy.

Ten years later, another 3-year-old boy fell into the gorilla enclosure at the Brookfield Zoo near Chicago. That time a female gorilla, Binti Jua, picked the child up and carried him to safety.  

A 2-year-old boy fell into a cheetah exhibit at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo in April 2015 after his mother allegedly dangled him over a railing. The parents rescued the child.

And another 2-year-old was killed by African dogs after, zoo officials charged, his mother lifted him up onto a 4-foot-tall wooden railing to get a better view. He fell into the exhibit and was attacked. The parents sued the zoo and later settled.

The zoos are inspected regularly by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Association of Zoos and Aquariums — on average once a year by the Department of Agriculture, though more frequently if there is a complaint, and every five years by the association for accreditation.

The federal Animal Welfare Act says zoos must have barriers in place between enclosures for gorillas and other primates and the public, but the specifics are performance-based, said a spokeswoman for the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Tanya Espinosa.

"That means that they are deemed to be adequate if they work, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which enforces the Animal Welfare Act, has broad discretion into how to administer them," she said.

The Cincinnati Zoo has been accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums without interruption since 1978, most recently in 2014, said a spokesman, Rob Vernon. Its standards are also performance-based, but if a state or municipality has regulations related to exhibiting animals, those also must be met, he said.

Its Accreditation Commission will first consider whatever changes the Cincinnati Zoo makes before deciding whether more needs to be done, he said. He said he did not know of an instance where a zoo made no changes after an accident.

The enclosure should now be looked at through “the lens of a 3-year-old," he said. 

Designers rely on the International Building Code, which specifies railing heights depending on the drop on the other side and other requirements. As zoos have evolved from cages for the animals, the animals have gotten healthier and stronger, Janikowski said. Enclosures have gotten larger, moats larger and heights of railings higher, he said.

Lash, with Atlanta-based Ursa International, said that some zoos were moving toward glass-enclosed viewing areas, which are extremely safe.

“But we also like to have the big open views,” he said. “You’re standing at the same level or even lower than the animals are and that requires these moats. And they’re very popular in design as long as it’s all safe. We work to make that happen because no one wants what happened the other day.”

German police are investigating the alleged assault of an Iraqi asylum seeker dragged out of a store and tied to a tree by a local “vigilante” group, NBC News reports.

A video showing the alleged incident that took place on May 21 near Dresden was circulated on social media, which prompted the investigation. 

Officers responded to a 911 call and found the Iraqi man zip-tied to a tree in the parking lot of a supermarket. According to a police statement, officers initially questioned three suspects, who were allowed to leave the scene after saying they “prevented a threat situation” following an altercation inside the supermarket. 

Police said in their statement Thursday that the suspects have been identified and are appealing to the public for information.

Solicitor General Donald Verrilli, the lawyer who successfully defended President Obama's health care law from repeated challenges before the U.S. Supreme Court, will step down later this month, the White House and the Justice Department announced Thursday.

"Thanks to his efforts, 20 million more Americans now know the security of quality, affordable health care," President Obama said, calling Verrilli "a dedicated public servant who has helped our nation live up to its promise of liberty and justice for all."

Verrilli will leave on June 24 after five years in the office, making him the seventh-longest serving Solicitor General, NBC News reported.

New Haven is the place to be for foodies on Saturday. 

The second annual New Haven Food Truck Festival will be at Long Wharf Park and the family-friendly event will include not only good food, but also live music, children’s activities and handmade items from local vendors. 

A Dragon Boat Regatta gets underway at the Long Wharf Pier from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. 

Adults who attend might want to grab a pint at a Thomas Hooker Brewery beer station. 

Tickets to the event are $5 and the festival goes from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. 

Following is the list of vendors included on the event website: 

• 744 Express
• Admiral Gyros LLC
• Ay! Arepa
• Cemitas La Güera Poblana LLC
• Christiano's Mobile LLC
• Dee's Flavors
• Disorbo's Bakery
• Food 365 LLC
• Four Flours Baking Company LLC
• Kay's Thai Kitchen
• Lunch Box 23
• Mamoun's Falafel
• Now We're Smokin
• Ricky D's Rib Shack
• Samba's Cuisine
• Sultan Kebab LLC
• Szabo's Seafood
• Taco Santa Fe
• Valencia Luncheria
• Yardbird and Co

Boxing great Muhammad Ali has been hospitalized and is being treated for a respiratory issue, a family spokesperson said in a statement Thursday. 

Spokesman Bob Gunnell said the three-time world heavyweight champion, who has Parkinsons disease, "is being treated by his team of doctors and is in fair condition."

Gunnell added that "a brief hospital stay is expected" and that Ali's family has requested privacy.

Ali was hospitalized in December 2014 with what was initially believed to be a mild case of pneumonia. But Gunnell said doctors later determined that Ali was suffering from a severe urinary tract infection and not pneumonia. He was released from hospital in January 2015. 

Though he hasn't made many public appearances in recent years, Ali took a jab at "so called Islamic Jihadists" and those who would "use Islam to advance their own personal agenda" in December 2015 after Donald Trump proposed a ban on Muslim immigration to the United States. 

"I am a Muslim and there is nothing Islamic about killing innocent people in Paris, San Bernardino, or anywhere else in the world," the peace activist told NBC News in a statement. "True Muslims know that the ruthless violence of so called Islamic Jihadists goes against the very tenets of our religion."

Ali's statement came three days after Trump tweeted that he couldn't recall any great American Muslim athletes — even though he's met Ali several times, NBC News reported. 

Dozens of parents have graduated from a program aimed at getting parents more involved in their child's education. 

The Hartford Parent University held its fourth annual graduation ceremony on Wednesday morning and staff members said the parent-led non-profit program trains parents on how to use school portals to check their child's work and to foster emotional growth in their children. 

"Every parent wants their kids to graduate and to have a better future," Ada Roman, one of the graduates, said. 

"She's always asking what's going on in school, she's more interested now that's she's been in this program," Yaritza Roman, a high school senior, said. 

Sixty two parents graduated this year. 

The free program is divided into 10 classes over one year, which are provided on weekends.

http://hartfordparentuniversity.org/

Emergency crews responded to West Hill Road in New Hartford for a water rescue, but the scene is clear. 

Officials from New Hartford Volunteer Ambulance said they responded to the area of 50 West Hill Road and the person was OK.

As many as 100 ISIS fighters who returned to Belgium from Syria may be planning terror attacks, according to a top Belgian official who spoke to NBC News. 

Deputy Prime Minister Jan Jambon said 300 fighters from Belgium have gone to Syria, and 200 have returned. He said half of those who returned could be used to counter the jihadi narrative among other recruits, and advise them from joining the terror group. 

There is concern that the other 100 could return with specific missions directed by ISIS, putting European officials are on high alert for any plots, Jambon said.

But Jambon pointed out that said he wasn’t aware of any imminent plot like the twin bombings that killed 32 people in Brussels in March. 

State police have arrested a suspect in a home invasion and assault in Winsted on Wednesday night. 

Police responded to Rockwell Street just before 10 p.m. to investigate a disturbance and then learned that there had been a home invasion and the intruders ran from the house before state troopers arrived. 

The residents had been assaulted during the home invasion. One sustained minor injuries, while the other suffered injuries that are not life-threatening and was transported to the hospital. 

State Troopers and K9 teams from Troop B-North Canaan responded to the scene and assisted with the investigation. At the request of Winsted police, detectives also responded to the scene and assumed the investigation. 

State police identified Elias Estremera, 45, of Torrington, as the suspect and charged him with home invasion, first-degree burglary, first-degree assault, third-degree assault, first-degree robbery, first-degree threatening, sixth-degree larceny and breach of peace. 

Police said this does not appear to be a random incident and the general public is not in any danger. 

Police said they expect to make more arrests. 

A $25,000 oil painting stolen from a Suffield home has been recovered, according to police, and the owner has decided not to pursue criminal charges.

The painting, which is signed by the artist, was the only thing stolen from the home during the burglary on Saturday, May 21, according to police.

The 1910 Henry Farny painting "Evening" depicts a teepee by the water and the worth is estimated at $25,000 but what gives it true value for the current owner is that his wife, who recently passed away, adored it.

"The painting was always special in my wife's mind, so the specialness of the painting comes in my wife's memory," the owner of the painting said after he realized it was stolen.

The owner, who did not want his name revealed, spoke to NBC Connecticut on the phone and said the oil painting has been in his wife's family for generations. They knew the artist before he became well-known.

Farny was born in France in 1847, moved to the United States at a young age, became captivated by Native Americans and captured their lives in paint.

The artwork is meant to go to the owner's daughter.

"I walked up to my bedroom and looked at the wall and said, 'It's missing,'" the owner said soon after reporting it stolen.

"The big concern is to get it back before it starts swapping hands," Suffield Police Detective Justin Fuller said last month.

The owner registered the piece with The Art Loss to prevent it from being sold.

Authorities said the homeowner was in the process of moving and it appears the home had been left unlocked.

"I didn't protect myself. I didn't think about the consequences. The house is open. People walk in and out. You know, I was way too trusting," the owner said.

The artwork was found on Thursday and police said the case is now closed.

Police are investigating a bank robbery in Westport after a man handed a note to a teller and implied he had a gun. 

Employees of Chase Bank, at 184 Main Street, called Westport police at 11 a.m. to report a robbery. 

Police said the robber was a middle aged man who indicated he had a weapon, but didn’t pull one on staff. 

No information was released on how much he stole. 

Anyone with information should call the Westport Police Department’s main number at 203-341-6000 or the detective bureau at 203-341-6082.

There’s a new species of praying mantis named after Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, according to NBC News. 

"The new species from Madagascar was named in honor of Ruth Bader Ginsburg, associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, for her relentless fight for gender equality," a news release from the Cleveland Museum of Natural History said. 

The species' full name, according to authors Dr. Gavin Svenson from the museum and Case Western Reserve University’s Sydney Brannoch, is IIlomantis ginsburgae (ill-oh-mantis ginnz-BURG-ee). 

Ginsburg's famous jabots, the neck accessories she invariably wears on the bench and for public occasions, also played a part. The IIlomantis ginsburgae has a distinctive, jabot-like neckplate.

Thousands of gypsy moth caterpillars are invading some homes in Old Saybrook.

Experts said the reason for the droves of insects is because of the lack of rain in the prior seasons.

"Largely due to the fact we had such a dry Spring and because those rains didn't kick in. So the fungus didn't kick in. It needs those rains to get going," said Department of Entomology at the Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station Kirby Stafford.

"We had no warning. We had no idea this was going to happen," said homeowner Joe Flanagan.

Experts said the caterpillars are to blame for roughly a million acres of trees defoliated back in 1970.

Rain should take care of the problem, Stafford said. Homeowners are being asked to wait it out until the rain comes.

Three earthquakes have rumbled near New England over the last four days – two of them on Tuesday alone.

Though earthquakes make for great conversation, there’s no indication here in New England that this recent uptick in tremors means anything larger is coming. 

• On May 28, at 8:10 a.m., a magnitude 2.5 quake rumbled northwest of Aroostook County, Maine, along the St. Lawrence River in Quebec, near La Malbaie.
• On Tuesday, May 31, at 11:54 a.m., a magnitude 2.0 quake rumbled just outside of Littleton, New Hampshire, in the northern part of the Granite State.
• Also on Tuesday, at 10:29 p.m., a magnitude 2.2 quake rumbled just about 30 miles east-northeast of Rockport, Massachusetts, in the Atlantic Ocean on the east end of Jeffreys Ledge, well known to New England mariners.

Not only were there no reports of damage, but for most New Englanders, the earthquakes went unnoticed – though seismograph data picked up on all three.

Fentanyl, the drug that killed Prince, is a powerful narcotic that has killed thousands of others, according to NBC News. 

According to a medical examiner’s report Thursday, the pop icon died from fentanyl toxicity. The autopsy report gave no details apart from declaring that Prince died from an apparently self-administered dose of the drug.

Fentanyl was formulated in the 1950s by Belgian drug company Janssen Pharmaceutica as a safer, more effective alternative to the painkillers morphine and meperidine. 

It is the strongest opioid approved for medical use in the United States and is rated as 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine, according to the National Institute for Drug Abuse. It’s the go-to drug many patients with advanced cancer use to deal with their pain. Drug pushers will mix it with heroin or cocaine, which can increase potency and danger.

Overdoses related to the drug have killed more than 700 people across the country from late 2013 to early 2015, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration.

A construction worker is in serious condition after scaffolding collapsed at the construction site of the Bone and Joint Institute on the Hartford Hospital campus in Hartford.

Paramedics at the scene at 200 Retreat Ave. on Thursday said the worker fell about 30 or 40 feet and officials from Hartford Hospital said the person was brought to the emergency department. 

Hartford Hospital, OSHA and the construction contractor are investigating. 

As a direct response to the sections of the park showcased by Yard Goats owner Josh Solomon, DoNo Hartford LLC Manager Jason Rudnick, in charge of the development of Dunkin Donuts Park, took NBC Connecticut for a tour of what he believes was left out.

Solomon showed NBC Connecticut yesterday how most of the suite and VIP section of the ballpark is unfinished, and more closely resembles a construction site than a completed high-end seating area in a baseball stadium.

On the way into the baseball stadium, the main entrance is nearly complete with sponsor signs and branding signs prominently displayed. The video board in left center field is operational, with the screen turned on today.

The dugouts are ready for equipment and players.

The Yard Goats' clubhouse is nearly finished, as crews were putting the finishing touches on the team's bathroom Thursday afternoon.

One bathroom that hasn't been completed in the same section of the ballpark is the one for coaches, which is mainly an empty room missing plumbing and walls.

Elevators have been a point of contention between the team and the developer, with the Yard Goats' owner Josh Solomon being particularly peeved at the lack of completion on the lift meant for the VIP section.

Rudnick, with DoNo Hartford LLC, took NBC Connecticut on the elevator that connects the field level from the concourse near the batting cages.

A stairway that had plywood on it yesterday, had smoothly poured concrete over it today.

Rudnick told NBC Connecticut that he admits there is still much work left to do, and pointed out the deck in Left Field meant for Bear's Smokehouse is a key issue. He also pointed out a missing section of concourse in left field, the same section Solomon voiced his displeasure with. Rudnick says there were issues with the design of the section and construction workers needed to make changes for when the section is delivered.

That section is what prevents the concourse from being 360 degrees.

Rudnick wouldn't provide a new possible completion date. He maintains the city bears some culpability when it comes to the delays and missed deadlines because changes directives have continued to arrive near daily.

Hartford Mayor Luke Bronin wouldn't comment Thursday on the back and forth between the developer and the team.

Terrorist attacks and resulting fatalities dropped in 2015 for the first time since 2012, according to a U.S. State Department report on global terrorism, NBC News reported. 

The report, released Thursday, found the total number of attacks dropped 13 percent from 2014. Fatalities from attacks decreased 14 percent, despite high profile cases such as the ones in Paris last November. 

ISIS is reported as being the greatest worldwide terrorist threat. Al-Qaida, whose leadership has severely degraded since 2001, also continues to pose a threat. 

Iran, according to the report, remains the foremost state sponsor of terrorism. Syria and Sudan were also found to be state sponsors of terrorism. Cuba was dropped from that list for the first time since 1982.