A Los Angeles judge Friday dismissed a wrongful death lawsuit filed against USC by the parents of two Chinese engineering graduate students who were shot to death in their car this past April, according to the City News Service.  

L.A. Superior Court Judge Michael Johnson sided with USC attorneys, ruling that the university cannot be held responsible for the murders and that there was insufficient evidence to support the plaintiffs' main argument, which was that statements made by the USC website about campus security were misleading.

"Causation is an insurmountable issue for the plaintiffs,'' Johnson said in his official statement.  

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The suit was filed on May 16 by the parents of Ying Wu and Ming Qu, two electrical engineering graduate students at USC's Viterbi School of Engineering.  The victims were sitting in a 2003 BMW when they were shot during what authorities say was a failed robbery attempt. The incident took place on Raymond Avenue, located approximately one mile northwest of the USC campus.

Two 20-year-olds, Bryan Barnes and Javier Borden, are awaiting trial on first-degree murder charges for the slayings and could face the death penalty if convicted.  

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The plaintiffs' lawsuit claimed that USC did not provide security patrols in the area where the students were killed, but according to USC court papers, the lawsuit does not show how statements made by the university about their security were misleading.

"The students attended USC for well over a year before they were killed off campus by two criminals who had no connection to USC,'' the USC court papers state. "And plaintiffs make no attempt to explain how the alleged misrepresentations ... could have caused the students' deaths.''

"Boiled down to its core elements, (the) complaint is nothing more than an attempt to try to hold USC financially responsible for damages inflicted on its students by the criminal behavior of third parties unrelated to USC.''

The plaintiffs' attorney Alan Burton Newman says that he will appeal the ruling.

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