USC Student Charged With Killing Professor on Campus

A University of Southern California graduate student has been charged with fatally stabbing a professor on campus last week, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office announced.

David Jonathan Brown (dob 7/11/88) was charged in case BA452257 with one count of murder as well as a special allegation that he personally used a deadly and dangerous weapon, a knife. He is scheduled to be arraigned today in Department 30 of the Foltz Criminal Justice Center.

Deputy District Attorney Beth Silverman of the Major Crimes Division is prosecuting the case.

On Dec. 2, Brown is accused of stabbing to death Siaufung "Bosco" Tjan, 50, inside of the victim's office on the USC campus.

If convicted as charged, Brown faces a possible maximum sentence of 26 years to life in prison.

The case remains under investigation by the Los Angeles Police Department.

David Jonathan Brown, 28, also faces a special allegation that he personally used a deadly and dangerous weapon in the crime, according to a DA’s news release.

Brown is accused of fatally stabbing 50-year-old Siaufung “Bosco” Tjan inside the professor’s office in the Seeley G. Mudd building on USC’s campus late Friday afternoon, according to police.

A motive for the case was not immediately known, but the Los Angeles Police Department — which is investigating — believes the killing was “targeted,” the L.A. Times reported. Brown, a student in the professor’s introductory lab course, was at the scene of the fatal stabbing when police arrived.

Tjan, the co-director of the Dornsife Cognitive Neuroimaging Center, had joined the USC faculty in 2001, according to his profile on the university’s website.

Hundreds of people gathered on campus last week to remember the slain professor at a memorial.

“Tragically, Bosco died doing what he loved, doing what he believed in — serving his students and building up a new generation of scholars,” USC President C.L. Max Nikias said. “His achievements are real, his influence enduring.”