Fatal stabbing at USC; victim may have been faculty member

LOS ANGELES — A man police say may have been a faculty member was stabbed to death on the University of Southern California campus on Friday and a suspect was taken into custody.

Officer Drake Madison said the stabbing happened in the afternoon near the school’s Seely G. Mudd classroom building. He added that the victim was possibly a faculty member at USC, a private school near downtown Los Angeles.

Neither the victim nor the suspect were immediately identified.

Los Angeles Fire Department spokeswoman Margaret Stewart said the victim was about 25 years old and was pronounced dead at the scene.

The university’s Trojans Alert emergency texting service quickly put out a message urging students, faculty and employees to stay away from the Seely G. Mudd building, which houses science and medical classrooms.

“Police-related incident in progress at Seely G. Mudd. No danger to USC or the community. Stay away from the area,” the text read.

The building is in the heart of campus near the school’s running track.

USC was rocked last year by the beating death of a graduate student who was attacked by several people as he walked back to his off-campus apartment late at night after attending a study session.

Xinran Ji, a 24-year old engineering student, managed to return to his apartment, where his roommate found him.

In 2012 Chinese graduate students Ming Qu and Ying Wu were shot to death as they sat in their BMW about a mile from campus.

After Ji’s murder USC officials sought to reassure parents of Chinese exchange students that the campus and its surrounding areas are safe.

USC has 44,000 students enrolled, including more than 10,000 international students.

A highly competitive school, it enrolled only about 16 percent of the more than 54,000 people who applied for its freshman class this year.