On August 15, 1996, 36-year-old Frederick Martin Davidson committed a calculated triple homicide at San Diego State University. Davidson, an engineering graduate student, was scheduled to present and defend his thesis that afternoon. But instead of participating in the academic process, he arrived with a 9mm handgun hidden inside a first aid kit he had planted in the lab earlier.
As the meeting began inside the engineering building, Davidson retrieved the weapon and began firing. He shot and killed three professors: Chen Liang, his thesis adviser; Constantinos Lyrintzis; and Preston Lowrey III. Students who were present managed to flee, but the professors were executed in close quarters. After the killings, Davidson calmly called 911, confessed to the shootings, and waited for officers to arrest him.
Investigators later discovered a note he had left behind, which included his grievances and instructions on where police could find additional materials at his home. Davidson had grown increasingly paranoid and resentful in the months leading up to the attack, convinced that faculty members were sabotaging his academic career and had rejected his thesis unfairly. He believed his future had been deliberately derailed.
He later pleaded guilty to three counts of first-degree murder in exchange for avoiding the death penalty. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
The attack shocked the academic community and underscored how academic pressure, untreated paranoia, and personal resentment can erupt into targeted violence. Davidson turned what should have been a professional milestone into a deliberate act of vengeance.
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