By Tiffany Williams –
A night out in Providence ended in tragedy for the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth football program after an 18-year-old freshman running back was stabbed to death and another player was wounded, with police arresting a fellow UMass Dartmouth student on a murder charge.
Marvins Antoine, a freshman running back for the Corsairs, died after being stabbed in the chest early Saturday following an altercation that police said began at the Mezzo Lounge on Charles Street in Providence. Freshman defensive back Kensley Macean, 19, was also stabbed and hospitalized with injuries police described as “non-life-threatening injuries” to his head, neck and left arm.
Antoine and other members of the football team had gone to the nightclub Friday night, hours after UMass Dartmouth lost a home game to Framingham State.
Providence police said an “altercation” occurred at the nightclub before moving across the street to the parking lot of a Wendy’s restaurant around midnight. It was there that the two football players were stabbed.
Antoine was rushed to Rhode Island Hospital, where he died from stab wounds to the chest. The 5-foot-10, 180-pound freshman was from Boston and graduated from Durfee High School in Fall River. His major at UMass Dartmouth was undeclared.
Macean, a 5-foot-11, 175-pound freshman from Dighton, survived the attack. He graduated from Dighton-Rehoboth High School and is studying Business & Engineering at UMass Dartmouth.
By Saturday afternoon, investigators had made an arrest.
Providence Police Chief Oscar Perez announced that 19-year-old UMass Dartmouth student Chukuwnonoso Uzoma Eze had been arrested on the university campus. Eze is not a member of the football team and was being held by UMass Dartmouth police until he could be brought to Rhode Island to face the murder charge.
Investigators are still working to determine exactly what led to the violence and what happened before the confrontation moved into the parking lot.
“There was an altercation between a female and some of the victims that were in line,” Perez said. “And then the altercation moved over to the parking lot of the Wendy’s but we have no indication that they knew each other.”
Police also used technology in the area as they worked to identify a suspect. Perez said Flock cameras helped investigators identify the vehicle in which Eze allegedly fled the scene, information that helped authorities locate him on the UMass Dartmouth campus.
The killing has now left the university community mourning the death of a freshman student-athlete while another freshman football player recovers from his injuries.
“Our hearts and prayers are very much with Marvins’ family, friends, classmates, and teammates as we mourn his loss together,” UMass Dartmouth Chancellor Mark Fuller said in a statement. “We also send our prayers and best wishes for Kensley’s recovery, and hope that he will be able to resume his education here soon.”
Antoine had only begun his college career at UMass Dartmouth. Now, instead of preparing for the next game, his teammates and classmates are mourning an 18-year-old running back whose first year of college ended in violence, while a fellow university student faces a murder charge in Rhode Island.