Jorge Liderman, 50, music theory and composition professor at UC Berkeley, died on Sunday after being hit by a BART car at El Cerrito Plaza. At around 9:30 a.m., it seems, the BART train operator claims that as the car was about four or five feet from the station, Liderman hurled himself in front of it, killing him instantly. And although the word "suicide" is being tossed about, his cause of death is still under investigation.

"Just because the train operator said someone jumped, that doesn't mean the train killed him," morbidly mused BART spokesman Linton Johnson, going on to say that Liderman "could have had a heart attack and fell. He could have had a stroke."

Gregory Bloch, a UC Berkeley PhD musicologist, tells us, "I've been talking to people all morning...no one can believe it."

To listen to some of Jorge Liderman's works, go here and here.