Classmate Stabs to Death a Jersey City Medical Student
Summary:
Paragraph five reads: "Schoop revealed this morning that Khalesa had been taking prescription medication for depression. He did not know if Khalesa, of Dubai, who had transferred from a medical school in Egypt just last month, was on or off his medication at the time of the stabbings."
The classmate being held in the stabbing death of a Jersey City medical student -- who was coming to the aid of a teacher -- in Curacao Friday has been charged with murder, attempted murder and assault, a prosecutor on the Caribbean island said this morning.
Moustapha Khalesa is under psychiatric observation at a jail in Curacao, Prosecutor Gillano Schoop said as new details of the tragedy have come to light.
Kan Mei Chan, 24, who had just finished her studies and was scheduled to come home this week, was stabbed "multiple times" by Khalesa in a hallway of the dormitory at the Caribbean Medical University in Willemstad, a police spokesman said today.
Chan, a Dickinson High School and Rutgers University graduate, was coming to the aid of a professor, Dr. Farrah Syed, who had been stabbed by Khalesa, police said.
Schoop revealed this morning that Khalesa had been taking prescription medication for depression. He did not know if Khalesa, of Dubai, who had transferred from a medical school in Egypt just last month, was on or off his medication at the time of the stabbings.
"Khalesa is in prison, but not in general population," Schoop said. "He hasn't given any statement yet. Doctors said he will be able to give a statement in two or three days."
Radek Lewkowski, one of the school's directors, said yesterday that Khalesa was under a lot of pressure from his parents to do well in school, and that it appeared he had trouble dealing with it. He said that Khalesa had done well at a medical school in Egypt, but transferred because of the civil unrest there.
It is unlikely that Khalesa will be allowed out of jail before his trial, which under Curacao law must be held with 116 days, Schoop said.
Curacao Police Inspector Reggie Huggins, the chief of communications, released new details on the crime, refuting some information provided yesterday by a school official.
According to Curacao police reports: Huggins said that Khalesa and Syed were in the professor's room when an argument began and he began stabbing her. Syed managed push Khalesa out of the room and locked the door. Mei Chan and other students came running when they heard screams from the room. Mei Chan was the first to get there, with a first aid kit in hand, and was stabbed multiple times by Khalesa, who fled.
Outside the building, Khalesa was held by a number of citizens from the neighborhood. While being treated at the scene for a hand injury from the knife, Khalesa kept repeating "What happened? What happened? What happened? I don't even know what happened."
"I don't believe," that he didn't know what had transpired, Huggins said.
Syed survived the attack and is in critical condition at a local hospital, the prosecutor said.
Winnie Hofstetter, U.S. vice consulate general, said this morning that Mei Chan's body is still at the coroner's office and, by law, an autopsy will be performed. Related topics: jersey-city