Updated throughout.

Police arrested two suspects in the murders of USC grad students Ying Wu and Ming Qu, LAPD Lt. Andy Neiman told the Weekly.

Details of the arrests were being made public at a news conference as we spoke, so he wasn't able to give us more information.

The duo was gunned down …

… as they sat in a parked BMW at about 1 a.m. April 11 in the 2700 block of Raymond Avenue in Southwest L.A.


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There was some speculation that they might have been gunned down during a robbery gone sideways.

Both victims were electrical engineering students from mainland China. Both were 23.

The slayings shocked the insular campus, though such crime is not entirely uncommon outside the mile or so student housing zone near USC.

Just this week parents of the two filed suit against the school for allegedly misleading them about the safety of the campus.

See also:

USC Lawsuit: Parents of Murdered Chinese Grad Students Say School Lied to Solicit Foreigners.

[Added at 7:55 p.m.]: Twitter reports from the LAPD news conference indicate that one suspect was arrested near USC while the other was arrested in the Palmdale area.

KTLA News' David Begnaud tweeted the ID's of the suspects: Bryan Barnes and Javier Boldon. He said neither have gang ties.

KPCC's Erika Aguilar said that the weapon was still outstanding and that LAPD Chief Charlie Beck still needs people to come forward with more information. A monetary reward for info was still good, she tweeted.

[Update at 8:01 p.m.]: KCAL9 news sayd that Barnes, 20, was suspected of pulling the trigger. He's the one who resides near campus. Boldon, 19, was suspected of being an accomplice, the station said. He was the one found in Palmdale.

[Added at 8:05 p.m.]: The suspect caught in L.A. was nabbed in the 1200 block of 91st Street near Watts, the Los Angeles Times reported. That's not really near campus. The paper said, yeah, cops suspected a botched robbery.

[@dennisjromero / djromero@laweekly.com / @LAWeeklyNews]

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