A second man is under arrest in connection to the death of a mechanical engineering student shot early this week at a fraternity house near the New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark, campus police said Saturday.
Taquan Harris of Newark was arrested Friday evening in Irvington, New Jersey, police said. Nafee Cotman of Irvington was arrested Thursday.
Harris, 22, and Cotman, 18, have been charged with murder, felony murder, robbery, and burglary and weapons offenses, according by the Essex County prosecutor’s office. Both are in custody, with bail set at $1 million bail each.
Joseph Micalizzi, 23, of Freehold, New Jersey, was shot early Monday morning during a burglary at the school’s Tau Kappa Epsilon off-campus fraternity house.
The door of the TKE fraternity house was unlocked on the night of the break-in, according to college officials. Micalizzi was confirmed dead at University Hospital in Newark two hours later, prosecutors said.
Micalizzi was in his second year at the college after transferring from Brookdale Community College in Lincroft, New Jersey. He made the dean’s list last year. A vigil attended by about 400 people was held for Micalizzi earlier this week, according to the school’s website.
After the shootings, the college said its law enforcement officials and those from the city of Newark and Rutgers University’s local campus were working together to heighten security in high-crime neighborhoods surrounding the schools.
The New Jersey Institute of Technology has 11,300 students, but only 1,800 live on campus, the school said.