An Ohio college student from Chevy Chase, Md., was killed during skirmishes Friday in Alexandria, Egypt.
Andrew Driscoll Pochter, 21, was fatally stabbed while watching a protest as a bystander, his family said in a statement Saturday.
Gen. Amin Ezzeddin, a senior security official in Alexandria, told Reuters that Pochter had been taking photos with a phone camera near an office of President Mohamed Morsi's Muslim Brotherhood as it was being ransacked by protesters.
Pochter died at a military hospital.
"He had studied in the region, loved the culture, and planned to live and work there in the pursuit of peace and understanding," his family's statement read in part. "Andrew was a wonderful young man looking for new experiences in the world and finding ways to share his talents while he learned."
He had been in Egypt to teach English to 7- and 8-year-olds and to improve his Arabic, his family said. He was an intern at AMIDEAST, a U.S nonprofit focused on education, job training and development in the Middle East and North Africa, Kenyon College said in a statement.
Mark Ellis, news director at Kenyon, told NBC News that the college is working with Pochter's family and friends to plan a memorial service to be held this fall.
Pochter was a rising junior at Kenyon, a liberal arts college in Gambier, Ohio. His AMIDEAST internship was not affiliated with the school, Kenyon said.
Two years ago, he wrote about his experience living with a host family in Morocco in an article published on the Al Arabiya news web site, discussing the effect of the Arab Spring on the family and in the community as a whole.
"Neighbors are re-connecting with old neighbors by marching together; strangers are finding common ground; and average citizens are realizing their true potentials in the real world," Pochter wrote. "...By their participation in community protests, members of my host family and friends are trying to reinvent themselves as members of their society and changing how the rest of the world perceives them."
Pochter was also a student leader of Hillel, a Jewish campus organization group with chapters across the country, according to a November 2012 article in The Kenyon Collegian.
PREVIOUS COVERAGE:
- Rockets Fired from Egypt's Sinai Hit Southern Israel
- 2012: A Year of Turmoil and Progress
- Egypt Protesters Defy Curfew, Death Toll at 60
Photo Credit: Family photos