Eldest son of American Indian family which committed suicide was a happy-go-lucky and popular UCLA student
LOS ANGELES: Krishna Rajarman’s classmates and friends remembered him on Tuesday as a mentor and scholar who preferred to go home on weekends to spend time with his younger brothers than party on campus, CNN has reported.
Krishna Rajarman, a Fulbright Scholar and honours student, was a junior at UCLA. We asked him, ‘Why not stay a weekend because we might do something fun?” said Ashwin Bhongir, Krishna’s roommate and childhood friend. “He said, ‘I want to be here for my brothers. I like to spend time with my brothers, it’s important.” Krishna, a 19-year-old junior at UCLA, a Fulbright Scholar and an honors student, was found on Monday fatally shot at his parents’ home in suburban Los Angeles.
Police said his father killed the teen, his two younger brothers, ages 7 and 12, his grandmother and mother. Karthik Rajaram, a 45-year-old unemployed financial services expert, then killed himself, police said. The six bodies were discovered in their neatly tended home in an upscale suburb 20 minutes outside Los Angeles on Monday.
A neighbour called police to report that the wife had failed to pick her up to take her to her job.
Police also found letters from the father explaining that mounting financial pressure had led him to kill. Fraternity member Vim Mahadev remembered Krishna as a devoted L.A. Lakers fan who occasionally mentioned family problems, but nothing unusual. “Nothing ever came up serious,” said Mahadev. “It was mostly his dad, about financial problems. But most of the time it was how he was his hero because he was intelligent and he always knew the right decisions to make. “It’s just so ironic.”
Krishna’s friends Bhongir and Nahel Patel grew up around the Rajaram family and told CNN they never saw signs of family turmoil during their teenage years. “I knew his family well, and every time I went there, it was one of the most welcoming homes I’ve ever been to,” said Bhongir. “It was always a fun loving place to be.”
