He stabbed his science professor at the
University of Massachusetts after she gave him a failing
grade.
NRI student from Calcutta ,
Nikhil Dhar, 22, allegedly stabbed associate professor
Mary Elizabeth Hooker in the neck on Thursday evening,
the last day of the semester, apparently during an
argument over his falling grades in haematology. ..Read
Full Story
CAMBRIDGE, Mass, December 24, 2005
Cristina Silva
Caroline Louise Cole, Globe Correspondent
Attack on professor is linked to
grade
UMass student charged in knifing
On Thursday, the last day of the semester, professor
Mary Elizabeth Hooker cheerfully greeted her hematology
class at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell
with homemade baked goods and coffee from Dunkin'
Donuts, friends said.
That evening she headed to her Cambridge home, unaware
that a student, concerned about his failing grade,
was following her with a knife in his car, police
records state.
Nikhil Dhar, 22, knocked on Hooker's door at 6:30
p.m., started shouting at her and dragged her to the
ground, beating her and stabbing her numerous times
before slashing her neck and ripping off her shirt,
witnesses and police said. He fled but was quickly
apprehended by a neighbor.
Police said they found a bloody note with the word
kill in his right coat pocket.
Hooker remained in stable condition in the intensive-care
unit of Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital yesterday,
as Dhar, 22, pleaded not guilty to charges of armed
assault with intent to murder and assault and battery
with a dangerous weapon.
The stabbing sent tremors of anxiety through faculty
and students at the commuter school as well as in
the tranquil middle-class neighborhood where Hooker
lived by herself.
Hooker, an associate professor in the department
of clinical laboratory and nutritional sciences, was
described as ''wonderful" and ''sweet" by
colleagues and did not seem a likely target for a
hostile assailant, said Garry Handelman, who worked
with her.
''She is not the kind of teacher a student would
go after," he said. ''She is extremely kind,
very gentle, very considerate."
Friends and acquaintances of Dhar said they were
shocked to hear that the reserved student, an elected
senator on the student government, had been arrested
and charged in the attack of a professor.
''Honestly, I would never have known that he would
do something like this," Mita Hirani, a student
at Lowell, wrote in an e-mail. ''He's a nice kid and
just very active in school and always there for everyone."
Kyle Coffrey, who served on the student government
with Dhar, said Dhar is very quiet.
''He kept to himself, but if you tried to talk to
him, he was very open, very friendly," Coffrey
said. ''Everyone says the same thing; we are all shocked."
According to police records, Dhar followed Hooker
home from school, trailing several cars behind her
so she wouldn't see him. He later told police he went
to her home intending to discuss his grade with her,
according to court documents. He and Hooker had wrestled
over the knife, he told police, and she probably thought
he ''was a burglar."
Dhar said he left his knife in the car, but Hooker,
dressed in a blue night shirt, was carrying a knife
when she opened the door, according to the police
report
On Thursday, the last day of the semester, professor
Mary Elizabeth Hooker cheerfully greeted her hematology
class at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell
with homemade baked goods and coffee from Dunkin'
Donuts, friends said.
That evening she headed to her Cambridge home, unaware
that a student, concerned about his failing grade,
was following her with a knife in his car, police
records state.
Nikhil Dhar, 22, knocked on Hooker's door at 6:30
p.m., started shouting at her and dragged her to the
ground, beating her and stabbing her numerous times
before slashing her neck and ripping off her shirt,
witnesses and police said. He fled but was quickly
apprehended by a neighbor.
Police said they found a bloody note with the word
kill in his right coat pocket.
Hooker remained in stable condition in the intensive-care
unit of Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital yesterday,
as Dhar, 22, pleaded not guilty to charges of armed
assault with intent to murder and assault and battery
with a dangerous weapon.
The stabbing sent tremors of anxiety through faculty
and students at the commuter school as well as in
the tranquil middle-class neighborhood where Hooker
lived by herself.
Hooker, an associate professor in the department
of clinical laboratory and nutritional sciences, was
described as ''wonderful" and ''sweet" by
colleagues and did not seem a likely target for a
hostile assailant, said Garry Handelman, who worked
with her.
''She is not the kind of teacher a student would
go after," he said. ''She is extremely kind,
very gentle, very considerate."
Friends and acquaintances of Dhar said they were
shocked to hear that the reserved student, an elected
senator on the student government, had been arrested
and charged in the attack of a professor.
''Honestly, I would never have known that he would
do something like this," Mita Hirani, a student
at Lowell, wrote in an e-mail. ''He's a nice kid and
just very active in school and always there for everyone."
Kyle Coffrey, who served on the student government
with Dhar, said Dhar is very quiet.
''He kept to himself, but if you tried to talk to
him, he was very open, very friendly," Coffrey
said. ''Everyone says the same thing; we are all shocked."
According to police records, Dhar followed Hooker
home from school, trailing several cars behind her
so she wouldn't see him. He later told police he went
to her home intending to discuss his grade with her,
according to court documents. He and Hooker had wrestled
over the knife, he told police, and she probably thought
he ''was a burglar."
Dhar said he left his knife in the car, but Hooker,
dressed in a blue night shirt, was carrying a knife
when she opened the door, according to the police
report.
But Hooker did not mention a knife to police, according
to the police report. Hooker told police that when
Dhar said he wanted to discuss his failing hematology
grade, she told him that she would get dressed so
they could go to Dunkin' Donuts to talk it over, according
to court documents.
Dhar then became ''very irate" and ''abusive"
toward her, Hooker told police, dragging her out of
the house and onto the ground. He stabbed and beat
her, according to the police report.
Carlos Madden, 21, who lives a few houses down from
Hooker, said he heard shouting and ran outside to
find Dhar crouching over Hooker's body as she lay
on the sidewalk covered in blood.
''He started slowly walking away," Madden said.
''When I caught up with him at the corner, he said,
'I have a knife.' He seemed pretty calm. He told me,
'She started it.' "
Madden called police on his cellphone and directed
them to the street. When they arrived, Hooker was
standing on her front porch, bleeding with a 4-inch
slash in her neck, according to the documents.
Dhar was standing on a nearby lawn with ''blood all
over his hands" and on his sneakers, the police
report states.
Dhar was ordered held with out bail yesterday after
the arraignment at Cambridge District Court until
a dangerousness hearing on Wednesday. A woman and
three men standing outside the courtroom identified
themselves as Dhar's relatives but declined to comment.
Stephen Hrones, Dhar's lawyer, said Dhar does not
have a record and is in Massachusetts on an international
student visa. Dhar, who is from Calcutta, wanted to
work in the biotech field and is the oldest of two
sons, Hrones said.
''He was there to discuss something with his teacher,"
Hrones said. ''There is absolutely nothing in his
past that would indicate an incident of this nature.
He seemed to have friends at school. He was involved.
His family is very supportive. . . . Obviously, this
is a much more complicated scenario than anything
the police say or that you can see on TV."
Dhar's parents were stunned by the charges, Hrones
said. ''They are not taking it very well," he
said.
William T. Hogan, chancellor at UMass-Lowell, issued
a statement saying that Hooker, a member of the university's
faculty for 12 years, ''is a valued member of the
faculty known for her dedication and devotion to her
job, her peers, and her students."
Hooker was a research associate at a US Department
of Agriculture laboratory in Beltsville, Md., before
she started teaching at UMass-Lowell in 1993. She
is a Boston University graduate with a doctorate in
biological sciences from Georgetown University. She
has written papers for journals on such subjects as
parasitic wasps and Mexican bean beetles.
Dhar is a member of the school's senior class, according
to Patti McCafferty, a spokeswoman for the university,
but is still working to complete his junior-year course
work.
Kanti Prasad, the faculty adviser of the Southeast
Asian Student Association, of which Dhar is a member,
said the stabbing sent shock waves through the university's
faculty and made him double-check his grade book.
Prasad, a professor in the university's electrical
and computer engineering department, said, ''We are
a tough school and expect a lot from our students,
because we are preparing them for the top jobs, and
that is our reputation.
''A failing grade shouldn't be the end of the world,"
Prasad said. ''Usually I find the students may argue
but they accept it."
