The Boston police department has got some “good leads” in the shooting of an Indian student last week and have stepped up patrol in the area where the 24-year-old Orissa native was found shot in the leg and head.
K. Seshadri Rao, a student at Boston University’s Graduate School of Management, was found dead a mile from the campus in the early hours of April 19. No arrests have yet been made in the case.
“We have developed some good leads in the case” in the last few days, Boston police commissioner Ed Davis said.
Mr Davis said while the police is pursuing multiple leads that it has got from the public, he did not comment on whether Rao was specifically targeted or randomly shot.
The police chief said the crime occurred in an area that is relatively crime-free. “This happened on a street that there is not a lot of activity on as far as crime is concerned.”
According to the latest update on the Boston police’s website in the case, the homicide unit is “actively investigating the facts and circumstances surrounding this incident”.
Boston mayor Tom Menino expressed concern over the killing and called the investigation a “very difficult one”.
“Shot in the head — was it an execution, what it was I don’t know yet?” Mr Menino was quoted as saying by local news website NECN. “I have talked to police several times about that particular student and I am very concerned about that.”
Rao’s killing was Boston’s fourth slaying in the past one week alone and police officials said some of the killings may be gang-related.
The police is also investigating if there is any connection among the four killings.