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Palmdale teen arrested for Chinese student killings

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Palmdale teen Javier Bolden was arrested Friday in connection with the murder of Chinese graduate students Ying Wu (left) and Ming Qu (right).

LOS ANGELES – A 19-year-old Palmdale man was one of two arrested Friday for the murder of two Chinese graduate students last month near the University of Southern California, according to authorities.

Javier Bolden was reportedly arrested around 7:30 p.m. in Palmdale on suspicion of murder. Bryan Barnes, 20, of Los Angeles was arrested three hours earlier.

Both men are being held in connection with the double murder of electrical engineering students Ming Qu and Ying Wu from China.

Qu and Wu, both 23, were shot to death around 1 a.m.  on April 11 as they sat in a BMW about a mile away from the USC campus.

Qu reportedly ran from the vehicle to seek help from neighbors before collapsing on the porch of a nearby residence.  Wu was reportedly found shot dead in the front passenger seat of the vehicle.

Javier and Barnes are not documented gang members but are believed to have gang affiliations, according to Los Angeles Police Chief Charlie Beck.

Officials suspect the killings were the result of a street robbery and were part of a string of crimes the two men allegedly committed in Los Angeles.

The men are being held without bail and are scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday.

Forensic evidence found at the scene linked the murders to two attempted homicides in Los Angeles, which led to the two arrests, Beck said at a news conference Friday.

The city of Los Angeles had offered a $75,000 reward for information on the shootings, in addition to the $125,000 reward that was offered by USC.

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Filed Under: Crime/ Safety

42 comments for "Palmdale teen arrested for Chinese student killings"

  2. We were contacted today by someone close to this incident, who was shocked and dismayed by the nature of the comments on this story. We sincerely apologize for the role we played in allowing these comments to continue.

    Out of respect for the two young students who lost their lives to violence, we have removed all comments that have nothing to do with the topic at hand.

    In the future, we ask that you please keep your comments on topic. If you absolutely must get something off your chest that does not pertain to the news story, please take the comment to the “Speak Out!” section.

    Thank you for helping us to keep this forum running in an orderly fashion.

    • I feel horrible for the families involved. This was truly a tragedy. With that being said none of the comments painted either victim in a negative light. And removing comments because the conversation may turn away from the original story sounds a bit like censorship, especially when none were vulgar in nature. Does this mean that you only allow commentary if it is in line with your websites views or opinions? So if anyone featured on this website calls they can have comments removed? You may want to go through every story you have done and apply the same rules. Otherwise it might be a bad precedent if you begin picking and choosing which stories comments get censored….

      • I have to agree with AV Times on this one. This thread had turned into an Abdul Askia sideshow! I’m happy to see that Adbul’s angry rantings were finally reigned in… I say delete Abdul’s braggadocious comments from every story!! Sorry, off topic.

        I do truly feel bad for the co-eds though, especially for the family. Imagine having your daughter that far away, and then getting that phone call in the middle of the night… It would send me crazy! Hopefully they caught the real perpetrators and the charges stick. So who gets the $200K reward then?

    • What community relations??!! Do you not get that two young people were savagely MURDERED in cold blood?? Those monsters responsible were taken off the streets, and rightfully so! What does community relations have to do with it? There is no relating to heartless cold-blooded murderers!!! Give it a rest Abdul!! Sheesh!

  5. Once again, two highly productive, motivated, educated people were savagely murdered by two ghetto beasts.

    This is like the Reid Keeth murder redux.

    These ghetto beasts beat, rob and kill people for no other reason than their sick hatred and “you owe me” mentality. I am sure the ghetto beasts thought that these two Asian grad students from USC “owed” them something too.

    On the bright side, it is getting harder and harder for these ghetto beasts to commit crime as Los Angeles County becomes more and more of a total Police State and our level of surveillance and intelligence rises.

    It’s a shame that good, productive people like these USC grad students and Reid Keith had to be senseless casualties along the way.