Chemistry PhD Student Who Sprayed Chemicals Under His Noisy Neighbor’s Door
In Tampa, Florida, a chemistry PhD student was accused of injecting an opioid-containing liquid under his upstairs neighbor’s door after repeated noise complaints. Hidden camera footage exposed the disturbing act.
In 2023, Umar Abdullah and his family began experiencing strange symptoms in their apartment in Tampa, Florida. Abdullah, his wife, and their young daughter kept getting sick over and over again, but no one could figure out why.
One day, while the family was away, they asked friends to pick up a package left at their door. When the friends arrived, they noticed a strange smell near the entrance. The apartment maintenance team and Tampa Fire Rescue checked for possible causes such as an HVAC leak or some other environmental issue, but nothing conclusive was found. As time went on, the Abdullah family became increasingly worried about their safety.
The Hidden Camera Caught Something Disturbing
Suspicious and desperate, Abdullah placed a hidden camera near the front door.
They had already begun to suspect their downstairs neighbor, Xuming Li, a Chinese chemistry PhD student at the University of South Florida. According to reports, Li had been repeatedly complaining about noise coming from the apartment above him. The tension appears to have increased around the period when activity in the home picked up after the birth of the family’s daughter. Then one evening, the camera captured something shocking.
Li was seen injecting a liquid under the front door of his upstairs neighbors’ apartment. Later hazmat testing reportedly found that the liquid contained methadone and hydrocodone.
How The Family Was Being Exposed
After each injection, the sharp smell of the chemical mixture could reportedly be noticed near the entrance of the Abdullah family’s apartment. As they moved in and out of the home, they were unknowingly spreading the substance into the air and across surfaces.
Soon after, they began suffering from problems such as shortness of breath, eye irritation, and skin irritation. Exposure to substances like methadone and hydrocodone can be especially dangerous for small children and may lead to a range of serious symptoms.
Arrest, Charges, And Deportation
Abdullah immediately reported the situation to the police, and Li was taken into custody on June 27, 2023.
He later faced multiple charges in connection with the incident. After being dismissed from USF, his student visa was revoked, and he was deported to China later in 2023.
A Case That Raised Bigger Questions
Beyond the immediate horror of the incident, the case also raised broader concerns about access to hazardous substances, lab oversight, and university safety systems.
What makes the story so disturbing is not just the alleged act itself, but how long the family had been living with unexplained exposure before they finally discovered the cause.