By Sara Scheler
Abdullah Alkadi, 23, a former ELS English Language Centers student at Dominican, was murdered Sept. 17 when a Craig’s list deal went wrong. Alkadi was attending California State University Northridge when his body was found off the 10 Freeway near Palm Desert, CA, nearly 150 miles away from his home. Alkali was trying to sell his Audi A6 and invited 28-year-old Agustin Rosendo Fernandez to his house to complete the transaction. Alkadi went missing that day.
Saudi Arabian students at Dominican learned a valuable lesson from Alkadi’s death. Freshman transfer student Hamad Alhamad said he thought Alkadi was partially to blame, “He should not have used this website because as we know there are a lot of crimes.” Alhamad said Saudi Arabian students are very trusting of others. “Saudi students give their trust free away. This is going to affect how to deal with others. I hope we learn this lesson.”
Junior Mazin Almutawa said Alkadi’s death caused fear in Saudi Arabian students. “We trust people as fast as we can,” he said. Almutawa said he feels safe at Dominican but wants administrators to use Alkadi’s death to teach students a lesson. “We need something from the university to teach us don’t trust people…teach us about the behavior of bad people here in America.” he said.
Alhamad shares Almutawa’s opinion. He said, “I want Dominican University to make a warning, not only for Saudi students but also for other students to warn them from going anywhere like Craig’s list.”
ELS student Turki Alghannam said Alkadi’s death affected all Saudi Arabian students. Alghannam said, “Until now, people still pray for him, donate money for him.”
Gretchen Dee, center director of ELS Chicago, declined to comment.
Last week, Agustin Rosendo Fernandez, 28, of Long Beach was charged for Alkadi’s murder and is awaiting a sentence of either the death penalty or life imprisonment.
schesara@my.dom.edu
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