Hundreds gathered on the college's West Plaza on Tuesday evening to honor Joseph Micalizzi, who was killed early Monday. Watch video
NEWARK -- Students stepped into the middle of the ever-widening circle, one by one, to share memories of the community member they had lost.
The people looking back at them Tuesday evening were largely silent as they held candles and, sometimes, each other.
Several hundred students were gathered on the New Jersey Institute of Technology's West Plaza for a vigil honoring student Joseph Micalizzi, who was fatally shot Monday morning.
"This is, in itself, a prayer," Rev. Bismarck Chau, the college's chaplain, told the crowd. "Your presence here says it all."
Micalizzi, 23, was killed around 3 a.m. Monday as he tried to fight off two burglars in the Tau Kappa Epsilon house on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, police sources said. The intruders fired multiple shots, which hit Micalizzi in the hand and head.
Burglars had previously broken into the home and left with several items, the police sources confirmed. No one has been arrested in connection with the shooting.
Micalizzi, a Freehold native, attended Brookdale Community College for two years and then transferred to NJIT to pursue a mechanical engineering degree. He lived at the fraternity house and made Dean's List last fall.
Chau told students at the vigil Tuesday that he hoped Micalizzi's death would spur a conversation about preventing such violent crimes near NJIT.
"All I know is that God knows your pain right now," Chau said.
A member of Tau Kappa Epsilon, which organized the vigil, called Micalizzi "the face of the fraternity."
"He put every single one of us before himself," said the student, who did not give his name.
The group observed a moment of silence before they ended the hour-long ceremony by singing Eric Clapton's "Tears in Heaven," which is a reflection on grief.
After the ceremony, sophomore Stephon De Silva said the NJIT community shows strong support for its members.
"It doesn't matter who it is or where they come from," he said. "If they're a student, we always show support."
This shooting, in particular, had brought the campus together, said Charles Fay, NJIT's vice president for academic support and student affairs.
"Joe has, in his passing, helped this community understand that we're stronger together, we care about each other and that we will do everything we can to support each other during times just like this," he said.
A student at Rutgers-Newark, which is adjacent to NJIT, was also killed at his off-campus home in April. The nearly back-to-back shootings, combined with a recent uptick in homicides, has roiled Newark's college students.
Fay said NJIT plans to work with Tau Kappa Epsilon and the school's other fraternities to evaluate how they can improve their security systems.
The college will also increase the public presence of its 78-member campus police force and will distribute educational information about safety, said Lauren Ugorji, NJIT's associate vice president for communications.
In a statement, Newark Public Safety Director Anthony Ambrose said the city's recent killings seem unrelated and the police department would send more officers to high-violence neighborhoods.
Marisa Iati may be reached at miati@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @Marisa_Iati. Find NJ.com on Facebook.