Wisconsin Charges Man With Murder of Saudi Student

After more than two months, a man has been charged in a killing that shook the University of Wisconsin-Stout community. Cullen Osborn, a 27-year-old from Minneapolis, has been charged with felony murder and battery in the beating death of Saudi student Hussain Saeed Alnahdi, the Eau Claire Leader-Telegram reports. The 24-year-old Alnahdi died Oct. 31, the day after police found him unconscious and bleeding outside a pizza restaurant in Menomonie around 2am. Witnesses said he had been beaten during an altercation with a tall white man. The death led to increased police patrols amid fears it could have been a hate crime.

Police, however, said during the investigation that they do not believe this was a hate crime, and a criminal complaint unveiled late Thursday states that Osburn insisted the incident had nothing to do with anybody's race, NBC reports. Witnesses gave police varying accounts of the confrontation between the men, though more than one said that Osborn was behaving aggressively and appeared to have started an argument with Alnahdi. "I hope this arrest brings some measure of peace and comfort to Hussain's family in Saudi Arabia," UW-Stout Chancellor Bob Meyer said in a statement Friday. After Alnahdi's death, the community offered a $20,000 reward for information leading to his assailant. (More Wisconsin stories.)