The murders of Ming Qu and Ying Wu occurred on April 11, 2012, when the two Chinese graduate students were shot to death when sitting in their 2003 BMW parked outside of the University of Southern California (USC) campus in Los Angeles, California. It sparked safety concerns around the campus in South Los Angeles, an area notorious for its history of crime-ridden neighborhoods. The two suspects, Javier Bolden and Bryan Barnes, aged 19 and 20 at the time of the shooting, were arrested in connection with the murders. In 2014, Barnes was found guilty of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment without parole. In October of the same year, Bolden was also found guilty, and in November was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole. On April 11, 2012, at 1:00 a.m., students Ming Qu and Ying Wu were shot to death after sitting in their parked 2003 BMW on the 2700 block of Raymond Avenue, located one mile northwest from the University of Southern California campus. After noticing two African American men with guns approaching them in the car, Qu managed to get out of the car and run to a nearby home where he pounded on the door but was shot several times in the head. Wu was killed by a single shot to the chest while she was sitting in the front passenger's seat. At the time of the shooting, it was raining heavily, creating challenging conditions at the crime scene. Qu and Wu were both taken to California Hospital Medical Center in downtown Los Angeles, where they were both pronounced dead on arrival. The two 23-year-old students were both from Mainland China and were studying electrical engineering. Police traced a cell phone taken by the perpetrators from the scene of the shooting. On May 18, 2012, that led to the arrest of Bryan Barnes, 20 years old, who was living near USC's campus in the South Los Angeles area. A second suspect, 19-year-old Javier Bolden, a resident of Palmdale, was detained that day. They were both charged with two counts of murder.