ITHACA, N.Y. ― An Ithaca College student fatally stabbed at Cornell University was attacked while trying to help a fellow student amid a series of fights after a weekend party, his sister said Monday.
Anthony Nazaire, a 19-year-old sophomore from New York City who was majoring in business administration, and his friend were stabbed early Sunday as several hundred people were leaving a fraternity-sponsored party at the Cornell student union, authorities said.
Police haven’t said what touched off the melee.
Kiara Nazaire said she had spoken with her brother’s friend and was told her brother was trying to get him away from a confrontation when their assailant struck.
“He was defending his friend,” she said, fighting back tears outside her family’s apartment. “It wasn’t to fight. He was pulling him away – and the coward just attacked them.”
Nazaire said her brother had been visiting friends at Cornell and had developed an “upstate New York family” there.
She said her family went to Ithaca on Sunday but returned early Monday with little information from investigators about their progress.
