UC Berkeley student Nicolas Leslie, 20, was killed in the terror attack in Nice, France on Thursday, July 14, 2016.
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Leslie, a junior in UC Berkeley’s College of Natural Resources, was among 85 UC Berkeley students in Nice for the four-week-long European Innovation Academy, an worldwide program that helps students with their startup ideas, according to the campus.
Leslie’s Facebook page said he was from Milan, Italy, and grew up in Del Mar, where he attended Torrey Pines High School in San Diego, before heading to Berkeley.
UC Berkeley officials confirmed the student’s death on Sunday based on information they said the Federal Bureau of Investigation had received that day from its French counterparts.
UC Berkeley spokesperson Robert Sanders said that campus study overseas, risk services office and student affairs staff were working with fellow students in France, the program director on the ground, local officials, US consular officials and Leslie’s family to find him.
“Today, our hearts are broken once again”, said Chancellor Nicholas Dirks, who stood on the steps of Sproul Hall with American, French and Italian flags waving behind him.
UC Berkeley is providing counseling support for students through the University Health Services and at Counseling and Psychological Services.
French officials said Friday that Bouhlel, a 31-year-old Tunisian resident of Nice, was known to police for petty crime and violence including road rage, but had not been suspected of Islamist militancy.
A third, 20-year-old junior Nicolas Leslie, is unaccounted for.
Recent terrorist attacks have impacted several UC Berkeley students.
“We are heartbroken and in shock over the loss of Brodie Copeland, an fantastic son and brother who lit up our lives, and Sean Copeland, a wonderful husband and father”, Jess Davis, a family friend who is speaking for the family, said in a statement to The Washington Post.
“We’re going insane”, Leslie said. He was among dozens of Berkeley students on the program, and fellow students have posted fliers in Nice trying to find him. Kostiuk and Huang have been released from medical treatment, while Medora is still hospitalized for a broken leg, the university said in a statement. Three other UC Berkeley students were injured during the attack that targeted revelers on Bastille Day.
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Leslie’s death comes on the heels of a terrorist attack at a restaurant in Dhaka, Bangladesh, just two weeks ago, that took the life of 18-year-old Berkeley sophomore Tarishi Jain.
