Hopes Once United Professor, Engineering Student But Student Allegedly Chose To Kill Rather Than Risk Failure

Like many a mentor and student, Chen Liang and Frederick Davidson shared a bond of hopes and intellectual passions that seemed to transcend their differences in status, background and temperament.

The ebullient, Chinese-born professor and the taciturn Army-veteran graduate student worked closely on a project to develop a new metal alloy they believed could revolutionize the aerospace industry because of its ability to withstand heat.

For months they worked long into the night in a laboratory in the engineering building tucked away in a shady, isolated corner of San Diego State University. Many of their colleagues felt they were on the verge of a scientific breakthrough.

But then on Thursday afternoon, in that same laboratory, Davidson allegedly pulled a gun he had hidden in a first-aid kit and methodically pumped 23 bullets into Liang and two other engineering professors, killing all three. Davidson, officials said, acted in a fit of rage because he felt the three were unfairly planning to reject his master’s degree thesis, ending his hopes of employment and respect and making his two years of hard work meaningless.

Davidson apparently had come to believe that Liang - his adviser, mentor and friend - was grabbing credit for his work and leading the drive to deny him his degree.

Liang, 32, was a sports and ballroom dancing enthusiast who had a brilliant academic and scientific future and had lived in an upscale part of San Diego with his wife and two young children.

Davidson, 36, single and without a social life, lived minimally in a rented room near campus and had struggled for several years to finish his graduate work and cobble together a career in a declining industry.

“He was very much dependent on him,” Davidson’s landlord, a retired English professor, said of the tie between Davidson and Liang. “It seemed like he admired him very much, and at other times resented the way Liang was ‘exploiting’ him.”

Davidson and Liang co-authored papers in technical journals, enjoyed backyard barbecues at Liang’s home, and dreamed of getting enough grant funding to complete their research.

On Thursday, Davidson had a 2 p.m. appointment with Liang and two other professors to attempt to answer their criticisms of his master’s thesis. It was his final chance to earn his degree. The session had just begun when gunfire was heard.

Without saying a word, Davidson calmly walked to a first-aid kit on the laboratory and took out a 9mm semiautomatic gun he had stashed hours earlier, police said. Calmly he walked toward Liang and allegedly shot him dead and kept firing.

The two other professors - D. Preston Lowrey III, 44, and Constantinos Lyrintzis, 36 - fled in terror but Davidson methodically followed them, firing, reloading and firing some more, 23 times in all, according to investigators. Lyrintzis was felled near the door of the laboratory, and Lowrey was shot to death while crouching in an adjoining computer room.

Campus police officers responded to frantic 911 calls about a gunman loose on campus and shooting professors. Confronted by three armed officers, Davidson begged for them to kill him and then meekly submitted to arrest, a suicide note tucked in his pocket.

“He was upset that his thesis had been turned down previously,” said San Diego homicide Lt. Jim Collins, seeking to explain a crime that has shaken the tranquil campus that has not had a weapons-related crime since 1974. “He thought the professors were out to get him.”

Davidson also resented his status as a temporary employee at the university, without benefits or job security, according to Charles Brashear, who rented Davidson a room in his home near campus for two years.

Davidson will be arraigned Monday in San Diego County Superior Court on three counts of murder. He is being held without bail.

Engineering is a rigorous discipline and grades among engineering students are the lowest of any major on campus, according to university spokesman Rick Moore.

“You present your work and questions are asked,” Moore said of a thesis defense session. “It’s more than a job interview and less than an interrogation.”

Steven Weber, newly installed president of San Diego State, praised the professors as “three of our brightest and most promising teachers/ scholars. … They were what we all strive to be, creators of the future.”