Daijiworld Media Network - San Francisco (SP)

San Francisco, Oct 17: Joshua Simon, Roseville police captain, said on Tuesday October 15 that Shankar Nagappa Hungud (53), an Indian-origin IT professional, entered his police station located in north California and confessed that he had brought the body of a victim he had killed. He also told them that he had even killed three more, and those bodies were at his apartment situated about 350 km away.

Joshua said that the police believe that the four persons were killed over a period of time and two among the dead were minors, Hungud had entered a Northern California police station, told the cops that he had a dead body in his car and confessed to having killed three others at his apartment.

Shankar Nagappa Hungud

Hangud, driving a red Mazda-6, arrived at the police station in the city of Mount Shasta shortly after noon and told officers that he had killed people at his apartment in Placer County city of Roseville, police said. He was placed under custody and will face four charges of murder.

Hangud was a data specialist and had worked for several companies in the Sacramento area, according to his LinkedIn profile. Hangud told the police the address where to find the bodies of his three other victims.

Motive behind techie’s act not yet disclosed

Roseville officers checked his apartment near Sacramento and discovered the victims, NBC News reported. “It appears that the victims were killed by this suspect over a few days’ time span,” Simon said. “We’re still working to put that timeline together.”

Hangud was the sole suspect in the killings and there appeared to be no ongoing threat, police said. Investigators are asking anyone between Roseville and Mt. Shasta if they have seen Hangud and an adult man of Indian descent in the suspect's car, the report said.

Police said they were not ready to disclose a motive for Hangud’s alleged acts; however, tax records showed that Hangud faced a federal tax lien of $178,603 from the Internal Revenue Service this year. Police believe Hangud “drove from Roseville and travelled to unknown places in Northern California, and ended up in Mount Shasta,” Simon said.

His most recent employment was with a company called Social Interest Solutions, which provides IT services for state public assistance programmes.

The company, located at 1 Capitol Mall and operated by Oakland-based Alluma, declined to comment, but public records showed his employment there ended in 2018.

Court records show that Hangud’s only previous encounter with law enforcement was for speeding in Placer County in 2016. Before 2015, he worked in the technology sector in the Bay area and had lived in Dallas, Texas; Maryland; and New Jersey, according to public documents.

Police said disclosure of the victims’ identities was pending until next of kin are notified. “This incident has touched the lives of many in the area,” Simon told reporters at a news conference on Tuesday, adding that such a killing had not occurred in the Placer County city of 1,30,000 people.

“It is a very sad, sad situation,” he said. “The suspect himself drove to the Mount Shasta police department with one of the victims in his car and made a confession to them to start off the investigation,” Simon said.

Mt Shasta police chief Parish Cross said he and another officer went outside to the car to verify what Hangud had said was true.

“These are things that just do not happen every day and when they do it is upsetting,” said Cross. “I’ve been in the business a long times, but this one here is a whole new level. We are still in shock,” he said, according to a report on KDRV.com.