Indian dental student shot dead at her apartment in California, no arrests made yet

Albany (California): A 37-year-old Indian woman dental student has been found dead in Albany, the US city’s first homicide victim since 2004, officials said on Sunday. Randhir Kaur was found dead in her apartment in Kains Avenue about 4 pm on Monday in Albany, California State. [caption id=“attachment_2156561” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Randhir Kaur was a student at the University of California, San Francisco. Image from UC San Francisco.[/caption] She was a University of California San Francisco (UCSF) dental student, officials said. The body of Randhir Kaur was discovered on March 8 by her cousin. Officers found Kaur on the floor of her apartment, and she was pronounced dead at the scene, police said. The Alameda County coroner will conduct an autopsy to determine the cause of her death, San Francisco Chronicle reported. No arrest has been made in the killing, which happened on a residential street a block east of busy San Pablo Avenue and several blocks from Albany police headquarters and City Hall, it said. Investigators seeking tips from the public said Sunday that they believed Kaur was accosted and shot sometime after arriving home. She had spent the afternoon at a Sikh temple and had planned to spend that evening studying. The San Francisco Chronicle reports there were no signs of forced entry. Her personal belongings were found inside a trash can about 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) from her apartment. Kaur, who hails from Punjab, was a student at UCSF School of Dentistry’s International Dentist Programme, which admits 24 foreign-trained dentists each year. “We are saddened at the tragic loss of Randhir Kaur,” UCSF officials said. “She was a treasured member of the UCSF School of Dentistry community. Our hearts go out to her family and friends at this very difficult time. Grief counseling support has been made available to all students, faculty and staff, and a memorial will be held to celebrate her life. We will miss her deeply,” the officials said. Kaur’s slaying is the first in Albany, a city of 19,000, since 2004, when Anthony Robinson, 18, was shot and killed while driving on Interstate 80, the paper said. With inputs from Associated Press and PTI