A $15,000 reward is being offered from private donations and a University of Wisconsin-Stout foundation in an effort to find out who killed a UW-Stout student from Saudi Arabia.
Hussain Saeed Anahdi, 24, was beaten to death on a city street early Sunday morning. His assailant is still at large.
At a news conference, Menomonie Police Chief Eric Atkinson said they do not know the motive in the killing, but they are not ruling out the possibility of a hate crime.
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“We want this community to be inclusive,” Atkinson said, “And we expect that when people come to UW-Stout and to the city of Menomonie that they will be safe and will be able to have an education that they can look forward to and will be able to apply to their adult lives.”
Atkinson said the department is dedicating all of its resources to solving the crime.
UW-Stout Chancellor Bob Meyer said he hoped the reward money would help generate information.
“Hussain was a young, bright and energetic young man who was well known and loved by our community, and had a bright future that was tragically cut far too short,” Meyer said.
Police are considering the killing to be an isolated incident.
Separately, the Council on American-Islamic Relations said it’s putting up $5,000 for information leading to the assailant.
Investigators said they still don’t know what motivated the crime and continue to conduct interviews and scan surveillance video from area businesses.
CAIR National Director Nihad Awad said there’s a rising number of anti-Muslim incidents nationwide, which raises concerns about a possible bias motive in this case.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include original reporting by WPR.
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