A man pulled from Boulder Creek has been identified as a University of Colorado student from Saudi Arabia, according to the Boulder County coroner.
Khalid Rafee, 21, was found face-down in a shallow part of the creek near Arapahoe Avenue and 13th Street in Boulder on Friday morning, The Daily Camera reported.
The mechanical engineering student, who is believed to have been at a bar the night before, was pronounced dead at a hospital.
Boulder police spokeswoman Laurie Ogden says the investigation is not complete but investigators do not suspect foul play.
Khalid Rafee, 21, was found face-down in a shallow part of the creek near Arapahoe Avenue and 13th Street in Boulder on Friday morning
‘We extend our deepest condolences to Khalid’s family upon hearing of this tragic news,’ Interim Dean of Students Andrea Zelinko said in a statement.
‘He was a mechanical engineering student here at CU Boulder and he will be sorely missed by his friends and all those who knew him. We have been in touch with Khalid’s friends and we will continue to outreach to those affected to offer campus support resources.’
Mark Schaefer, who was on his way to go fly fishing when he found the body, said Rafee was lying face-down in about six inches of water in the middle of the creek.
Because the water levels were low that day, Schaefer doesn’t think the student died upstream.
‘He either fell directly off that Arapahoe [overpass] bridge or maybe he stumbled in the creek,’ Schaefer told The Daily Camera. ‘But he didn’t float there.’
Police believe Rafee was at the Pop-Up Bar on Walnut Street before his death
He added that although emergency workers performed CPR on Rafee and transported him to a hospital, it was obvious the student, who was wearing ‘nice jeans and a denim jacket’, was dead.
‘He looked like he could have been going to the bars, for sure,’ Schaefer said, according to the local news outlet.
Police believe Rafee was at the Pop-Up Bar on Walnut Street at about 1.15am but haven’t given any other information on the case.