A suspect arrested at Cal State Fullerton stabbing

An employee of Cal State Fullerton has been arrested for fatally stabbing a retired university administrator, authorities said Thursday.

Chuyen Vo, 51, was detained at 22:16. Fullerton police said at a press conference Wednesday in his Huntington Beach home and is currently being held without bail. Officials said he had attacked Steven Shek Keung Chan, 57, on Monday in a campus parking lot, killing the former budget manager who had returned to Cal State Fullerton as a consultant.

Lieutenant Jon Radus of Fullerton Police did not reveal the relationship between Vo and
Chan
but stated that the victim had been targeted.

Chan was stabbed several times inside his car, parked on a campus site. He was bleeding and the paramedics took steps to save lives, but he died on the scene.

CSU Fullerton President Framroze Virjee, left, embraces University Police Chief Raymond Aguirre after a press conference about the arrest of Chuyen Vo, 51, on suspicion of murdering Steven Shek Keung Chan, 57, at Cal State Fullerton on Monday.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

"Today I come to you with a heavy heart," University President Framroze Virjee said at the press conference on Thursday. "As a Titan family, we suffered a devastating tragedy close to home. Our hearts are with Steven Chan, his family and all members of the university community. "

During their investigation, the authorities found an "incendiary device" and a backpack containing ties and disguises under the victim's car.

Although Radus refused to say how the investigators identified Vo as a suspect, he said that the objects in the backpack had played a role.

The abuser was last seen on Monday, running from the parking lot near Langsdorf Drive and Nutwood Avenue, heading to a nearby Marriott hotel. He had been described as being in his mid-twenties and was wearing all the black.

The search for the attacker has been extended until Tuesday. Authorities swept the area with the help of bloodhounds from the Orange County Sheriff Department, but were unable to locate the suspect.

Photo of 51-year-old Chuyen Vo, accused of killing his colleague.

(Fullerton Police Department)

The investigators published a sketch and a surveillance video in the hope that someone could identify the
man who was seen fleeing the crime scene. Police believe that he escaped into a black four-door BMW sedan with black wheels and dark tinted windows that was parked in a neighboring lot on the east side of the highway 57.

Monday's attack, the first day of the school year, frightened the university community and students, who must begin classes next week.

Chan served as Cal State Fullerton's Director of Budget and Finance and Student Services for the 2009 Continuing Education Program upon his retirement in 2017. He returned to campus in early 2019 to work as a consultant. special.

It was a private businessman who remained mostly discreet and methodical in his work, said Ellen Treanor, a spokeswoman for the campus. He had an undergraduate degree in accounting from Cal State Hayward and a law degree from Whittier Law School.

"He was a man of few words," said Treanor. "He refused to organize a departure party, but kissed everyone when he came back."

Flowers are left on the site where Steven Shek Keung Chan was murdered at Cal State Fullerton on Monday.

(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

Hannah Fry, Times Editor, contributed to this report