A man charged with killing a law school student and high school friend told police officers that “I killed my buddy” and that he believed his girlfriend and the victim were having a romantic relationship behind his back, Montgomery County police said.
Rahul Gupta is charged with second-degree murder, accused of fatally stabbing Mark Edward Waugh after the two high school friends and others had gone out drinking to celebrate Gupta’s 24th birthday, police said.
Officers responding around 3:25 a.m. Sunday to a Silver Spring apartment that Mr. Gupta shared with his girlfriend found him covered in blood and an unresponsive Mr. Waugh with multiple stab and “defensive-type” wounds, according to a police summary of the case. Mr. Gupta said that he walked in on his girlfriend cheating on him, according to police.
“My girl and my buddy were cheating, my girl was cheating with my buddy. I walked in on them cheating and I killed my buddy” Mr. Gupta told officers, according to the arrest report.
Mr. Gupta’s lawyer, Reginald Bours III, questioned the accuracy Tuesday of the statements attributed to his client and said he was unaware of any evidence of cheating.
“That did not happen. I have no idea how they got that or how they attribute him to saying that,” Mr. Bours said. “There’s got to be confusion on somebody’s part.”
Mr. Gupta was arrested and ordered held on $2 million bond.
Mr. Waugh, 23, was a first-year law student at Georgetown University, which was making counselors and chaplains available on campus.
“He was a bright young man, full of potential,” the law school said in a statement. “The Georgetown Law community is shocked and deeply saddened by this tragic loss.”
Mr. Gupta and Mr. Waugh were friends from Langley High School in McLean, where Mr. Gupta was on the tennis team. Mr. Gupta is pursuing a master’s degree in biomedical engineering at George Washington University, his lawyer said.
“He’s an outstanding young man who has absolutely no history of violence or aggressiveness,” Mr. Bours said, adding, “There’s just nothing in his background that would suggest this could happen.”
Please read our comment policy before commenting.