Lowell man arrested in Saturday homicide

By Globe Staff

A 22-year-old Lowell man has been charged with fatally stabbing a man who had walked outside the convenience store where he worked to take a smoke break at dawn on Saturday morning.

Luis Rodriguez was arrested shortly after midnight this morning in the slaying of 37-year-old Mazen Alwarad of Lowell, Middlesex prosecutors said. Rodriguez was arraigned this morning in Lowell District Court on one count of first-degree murder and ordered held without bail.

The murder was a "tragic, random, and disturbing act," District Attorney Gerry Leone said in a statement.

Prosecutors said Alwarad stepped outside the 7-Eleven store on Lowell's Chelmsford Street to smoke a cigarette. Rodriguez approached the victim, an argument ensued, and Rodriguez allegedly stabbed Alwarad multiple times. Police were called to the scene at about 6:45 a.m. Alwarad was MedFlighted to a Boston hospital, where he was later pronounced dead.

Alwarad was unarmed, prosecutors said, and there is no evidence he knew Rodriguez. District Court Judge Steven Ostrach slated a pretrial hearing for Jan. 5.

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