Friend, Co-Worker Of Slain USC Professor Speaks Out About Deeply Personal Loss
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — A friend and co-worker of Bosco Tjan, the USC professor who was allegedly stabbed to death by a student-colleague, is speaking out Saturday.
Chris Purington, who also considered Tjan a mentor, spoke to KCAL9's Laurie Perez.
"I thought we were gonna do great things together and now I've gotta do great things without him to make him proud, you know?," said Purington.
He told Perez he is devastated by the loss of his friend.
Purington -- a research technician at USC -- says Tjan was a charming, unstoppable scientist who loved bbq, classical music, teaching and research. Purington says he thought he'd talk to reporters about Tjan one day, just not this way.
"Honestly like I thought someday if I've ever get interviewed by the news about him you know it would be some great breakout research that he did and I kinda I was hoping that I'd get to do that research with him," Purington says.
For the past year-and-a-half he worked with Tjan in the very 10th floor lab where police say the scientist was stabbed and killed Friday afternoon.
Purington wasn't there that day but now has return to the office without the man who he says changed his life.
Legally blind, Purington's work with the professor researching vision and vision loss, was personal.
"He really wanted to contribute something, make people's lives better," Purington says.
Purington also knows 28-year-old David Jonathan Brown who the LAPD says they arrested for the stabbing.
Brown was arrested without incident. Purington says Brown was a PhD student in Tjan's lab and he spoke with the graduate student as recently as this past week.
"Talked to him a few times but nothing that really stuck out. I can't imagine his motive, I just can't," Purington says.
Police have not released a motive for the slaying.