A Harvard graduate student was arrested for murder Saturday morning after he allegedly stabbed a teenager five times during an altercation outside a Cambridge pizza parlor.
Alexander Pring-Wilson, 25, was arrested Saturday at 8:30 a.m. at his home in Somerville for the murder of 18-year-old Michael Colono of Cambridge, according to Middlesex District Attorney spokesperon Emily LaGrassa.
Pring-Wilson is a graduate student at Harvard’s Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies.
At 1:50 a.m. Cambridge Police Department (CPD) officers responded to a report of a stabbing outside Pizza Ring, at the corner of Western Avenue and Howard Street—a short walk from Mather House.
Officers did not find a victim, but questioned Pring-Wilson at the scene, LaGrassa said.
Colono was admitted to the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center with multiple stab wounds to the upper body, and pronounced dead at 3:15 a.m.
According to LaGrassa, police discovered that friends’ description of Colono’s assailant matched that of Pring-Wilson.
Police tracked Pring-Wilson to his Somerville apartment and arrested him.
According to LaGrassa, the stabbing occurred when Pring-Wilson approached a car driven by the victim and two friends outside Pizza Ring.
LaGrassa said that after Colono got out of the car he and Pring-Wilson “had some kind of physical and verbal altercation.”
Pring-Wilson allegedly stabbed Colono several times during the fight.
Pring-Wilson’s attorney, Jeffrey Denner, said his client was acting in self-defense.
According to LaGrassa, Colono got back into the car and drove away, not realizing he had been stabbed until he experienced breathing difficulties.
Colono’s friends attempted to drive him to a hospital but got lost en route. When they stopped to ask for directions, a police officer noticed Colono and summoned an ambulance.
An autopsy today confirmed that Colono’s death was a homicide.
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