The Northeastern community suffered two student losses in the past month, losing sophomore Matthew Tasker to a car crash and former student Ashmead Arjune in an alleged homicide.
While home on summer break in Tully, N.Y., the 19-year-old Tasker, an engineering major, was spending an evening with friends on Aug. 16. At the end of the night, Tasker dropped off a few friends in a neighborhood he was unfamiliar with, said Captain Mark Petterelli of the Dewitt, N.Y. Police Department.
“[The accident occurred] in a residential area on a street that is essentially a culdesac,” Pett-erelli said. “As he [went off] the road he hit some large timbers that separate the road from the woods. He ultimately went down a small ravine after he hit a tree and flipped over onto his roof.”
Petterelli said Tasker’s car was not discovered until 1:30 p.m. Tuesday after his mother had reported him missing.
“His family and friends began to look for him that day,” Petterelli said. “Ultimately his friends went down the street [the crash occurred on] because that’s where he had last been seen, and they found the car at which point they called 911.”
Speed and unfamiliarity with the area are suspected as the main factors in the crash, Petterelli said.
“We don’t suspect any alcohol or drugs at all,” he said.
In another loss four days later on Aug. 20, Arjune, who was reported by the Boston Globe to be a music industry major at Northeastern up until the end of 2003, was attending a party in Malden when he was allegedly stabbed. According to the Middlesex District Attorney’s office, police believe the 20-year-old Arjune of Malden and 18-year-old Jeffrey Maingrette of Mattapan began arguing. Later that night, an altercation occurred outside the party residence, during which police believe Maingrette stabbed Arjune.
Upon learning of his injury, Arjune’s friends are believed to have put him in a vehicle in an attempt to bring him to the hospital themselves, according to a press release from the Middlesex District Attorney’s office. As Malden police were responding to the scene, another Malden officer made a traffic stop and learned there was a stabbing victim in the car. The officer called an ambulance, but Arjune was pronounced dead at the hospital of a single stab wound to the torso.
Not counting Arjune, who was not a student at the time of his death, nine Northeastern students have died in the last 12 months.
“I think in a big city like Boston, I’m not really surprised [there are so many deaths],” said Paul Pikman, a freshman economics and political science major. “I’m sure in other big schools they have problems like that, too.”
Student Government Association President Andres Vargas said he does not believe the deaths of Tasker and Arjune are bad omens about the upcoming year.
“I think it’s always sad to lose someone so young – their presence will always be missed on campus and our hearts and prayers always go out to their family and friends,” Vargas said. “But I’d like to think of last year as a bad luck sort of thing. We have a large campus with a large number of students, and the odds unfortunately get higher that something bad will happen.
“We always wish the best for our students, and we want them to be safe, and when that doesn’t happen it’s tragic. But it’s not foreshadowing anything.”
Tasker graduated in 2003 from Lafayette Junior Senior High School, and principal Paula Cowling said Northeasten’s presence at Tasker’s funeral was admirable.
“What was extremely impressive was the contingence of people from Northeastern that came down for his funeral,” Cowling said. “It wasn’t just his girlfriend, both his roommates were here and numerous other people, even though they’d only lived together a year. They were just very nice young people. It speaks a lot for the kids and for Matt Tasker, but it also speaks a lot for the university.”
