Saudi Student at University of Wisconsin Fatally Beaten

The University of Wisconsin-Stout has been shaken by the killing of a student from Saudi Arabia in a possible hate crime. Police say Hussain Saeed Alnahdi, 24, was attacked and beaten at around 2am Sunday near a pizza restaurant in downtown Menomonie by an attacker described only as a white male around 6 feet tall, NBC News reports. Alnahdi, a junior who was majoring in business administration, died from his injuries Monday. In a blog post, UW-Stout Chancellor Bob Meyer expressed his horror at the attack while also pleading for people not to jump to conclusions about what led to the incident. Police have urged anybody with any information about the attack to come forward.

Linda Bark, who taught Alnahdi English as a second language, tells the Journal Sentinel that he wanted to be an actuary and he was "very popular, very well liked." She says she placed a plastic bee at a makeshift memorial outside the pizza restaurant because Alnahdi was proud of his father's profession selling honey. Tommy Hutson, one of Alnahdi's roommates, says he was a friend so close he was like family. "If I ever spoke to someone [who] thought negatively of Saudis or Muslims, I would tell them they needed to speak to Hussain and they would feel differently," he tells NBC. "We came from different worlds, but he showed me every day how much we had in common." (More University of Wisconsin stories.)