Ex-Worker Charged in Shootings at UCLA : Crime: Man arraigned on murder and attempted murder counts in fatal attack at Medical Center.

A former UCLA Medical Center employee was charged Thursday with the February shootings of a co-worker and supervisor, assaults that shocked the university and resulted in the campus’ first homicide in more than 20 years, police said.

Brian Keith Major, 18, was arrested at a friend’s home in South-Central Los Angeles Tuesday evening and arraigned Thursday in Los Angeles Municipal Court on one count each of murder and attempted murder, Los Angeles Police Detective Lee Kingsford said.

“His whereabouts were never a question,” said Kingsford, explaining that Major had been a suspect since shortly after the shootings. “It was only being able to prove the homicide.”

A former patient escort at the medical center, Major pleaded not guilty to charges that he murdered fellow escort Diondra Ann Picou, and seriously wounded his supervisor, Nora S. Arellano, 30, during a pre-dawn shooting on Feb. 19. He is being held without bail at the Los Angeles County Jail, said Kingsford.

“It appears the motive was Major’s anger at his supervisor over pending discipline resulting from his job performance,” said Kingsford. “Detectives believe Diondra was the mistaken victim of Major’s anger.”

At the time of the shootings, Major was one of 75 escorts responsible for guiding patients and delivering medical equipment and lab samples within the massive hospital complex.

He had been an employee for about two months, working an overnight shift when he learned Arellano was writing a negative report to her superior on his job performance. Her complaints included his alleged napping on the job and taking excessive breaks, police said.

Detectives said Major entered the hospital’s patient escort dispatch office about 5:40 a.m. planning to shoot Arellano. Instead, he mistakenly shot Picou, 22, who was sitting in the supervisor’s chair.

Major then spotted Arellano sitting in another part of the office. “When he discovered his mistake, he shot her too,” said Police Capt. Michael A. Bagdonas.

A $40,000 reward offered for information on the shootings assisted in the investigation, police said, describing the case as a “classic whodunit.” Investigators focused on as many as 10 suspects and conducted hundreds of interviews, detectives said.

Major was one of those interviewed. While officials had said earlier they had all but ruled out the possibility that a hospital employee was responsible for the shootings, Kingsford said Thursday that Major had been a suspect since shortly after the crime occurred.

Detective Andy Monsue described Major, a graduate of Pacific Palisades High School, as “a very bright individual, very successful in high school, a good student and an athlete. There’s nothing in his background that would lead one to believe he would be involved in something like this.”

Major was about to be suspended from his job at the medical center because of his work habits, UCLA campus police said. He showed up at the medical center the morning of the shootings and the following day, said UCLA Police Chief John Barber, whose department assisted in the investigation.

Major returned to the hospital a third time to pick up his paycheck and eventually quit his job, said Barber.

“He was a pretty cool customer,” Barber said.