Bing Liu – a research assistant professor at the University of Pittsburgh who was on the cusp of making “very significant findings” about the coronavirus was killed over the weekend in what the authorities say was a murder-suicide.
Officials told the Washington Post that Liu was shot by another man and suffered gunshot wounds to the head, neck, torso and extremities. The other man, later identified as Hao Gu, then got into his car about 100 yards away and killed himself.
It was unclear how the two men knew each other and the police are investigating if there was any confrontation before the shooting.
Bing Liu’s supervisor and head of his department told the newspaper that Liu had been researching the cellular mechanisms that underlie coronavirus infections and had started producing very interesting results.