Researcher on brink of major Coronavirus discovery Murdered

https://www.post-gazette.com/news/c...ing-liu-police-elm-court/stories/202005040082

Incase things disappear:
http://archive.today/2020.05.06-041...ing-liu-police-elm-court/stories/202005040082


The man fatally shot Saturday in his Ross townhouse was a University of Pittsburgh research assistant professor who had recently begun working on a project involving COVID-19, his department head said Monday.

Bing Liu, 37, was shot multiple times around noon Saturday inside his home in the 200 block of Elm Court.

"He was a very talented individual, extremely intelligent and hard-working," said Ivet Bahar, the head of the computational and system biology department in Pitt's School of Medicine.

"He has been contributing to several scientific projects, publishing in high-profile journals. He was someone whom we all liked very much, a very gentle, very helpful, kind person, very generous," said Ms. Bahar, who has a doctorate in chemistry. "We are all shocked to learn what happened to him. This was very unexpected."

In a statement, the Pitt department called Mr. Liu an outstanding and prolific researcher and an excellent mentor.

"Bing was on the verge of making very significant findings toward understanding the cellular mechanisms that underlie SARS-CoV-2 infection and the cellular basis of the following complications," the statement read in part. "We will make an effort to complete what he started in an effort to pay homage to his scientific excellence.”

Ross police believe that Mr. Liu was shot by another man — identified later by the Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office as Hao Gu, 46, of Pittsburgh — who then got into his car parked about 100 yards away on Charlemagne Circle and killed himself.

Police declined to disclose a possible motive for the homicide, but they said nothing was stolen from the townhouse and there was no forced entry.

An autopsy found that Mr. Liu was shot multiple times, including in the head, neck and torso.

Ross police Sgt. Brian Kohlhepp said the men knew each other but did not disclose how. He declined to comment on a possible motive, but said no other suspect is at large.

Mr. Liu had the front and rear patio doors open to his townhouse at the time he was killed because the weather was nice, Sgt. Kohlhepp said. His wife was not home at the time of the shooting.

Ms. Bahar said she had spoken over the weekend to Mr. Liu's wife and confirmed that the homicide victim was him after hearing about the crime from another colleague. Ms. Bahar said the couple had no children and that Mr. Liu was an only child. Both his parents lived in China, she said.

Mr. Liu earned his doctorate at the University of Singapore in 2012. He came to the U.S. and worked as a postdoctoral fellow at Carnegie Mellon University under renowned computer scientist Edmund M. Clarke, a 2007 Turing Award recipient, according to Mr. Liu's online resume. He moved to Pitt and Ms. Bahar's lab about six years ago.

Ms. Bahar said her laboratory uses computer simulation models to mimic biological processes in an effort to predict how those processes proceed at the molecular and cellular levels and how to interfere with them to design therapies.

Pitt’s statement said Mr. Liu has co-authored 30-plus publications, including four in 2020. Ms. Behar said he had just begun research on the novel coronavirus.

“He was just starting to obtain interesting results," she said. "He was sharing with us, trying to understand the mechanism of infection, so we will hopefully continue what he was doing.”’

Ms. Bahar said people in her lab had been working from home during the pandemic. She said she and Mr. Liu would have daily contact about their work. She said she had sent him several emails over the weekend on work topics.

"He didn't answer, so I was surprised. He would be very prompt usually," she said.

Ms. Bahar said Mr. Liu had not told her about any problems or concerns about fearing for his safety.

“This is someone who we're going to miss very much at the department,” Ms. Bahar said.

Police are still looking into whether there was any confrontation that preceded the shooting. Sgt. Kohlhepp said the townhouse did not appear to have been ransacked.

The sergeant declined to release further information about how police determined that the attacker killed himself.

Mr. Liu and his wife were mostly quiet and kept to themselves, according to their neighbors.

One neighbor, who declined to give his name, said that he didn’t know of anyone in the neighborhood that knew Mr. Liu well. The neighbor, as well as others that live near Mr. Liu’s home, also said that he did not hear any gunshots nor any other sounds the day of Mr. Liu’s death.

A formal ruling from the Allegheny County Medical Examiner’s Office about the cause and manner of Mr. Gu’s death is pending.

Jonathan D. Silver: jsilver@post-gazette.com, 412-263-1962 or on Twitter @jsilverpg. Staff writer Bill Schackner contributed.