Former classmates and school officials who knew Treyjon Arsenault said he was never the type of person to attract violence, which made the news of his shooting death in the Old Port a shock to his friends and onetime teammates.
Arsenault, 19, was one of two people shot late Monday night at the DA Block Records Inc. recording studio on Market Street. The other victim, a 20-year-old male who has not been identified, was expected to recover, police said.
Although police did not confirm Arsenault’s death until Tuesday afternoon, the news had spread throughout Westbrook, where Arsenault graduated from high school in 2014 and was a member of the football team.
“He was a great kid to have around. A lot of fun to coach,” said Jeff Guerette, Westbrook’s football coach. “People are still kind of processing what happened, but this is going to affect a lot of kids. We’re all trying to support each other.”
Tom Kostopoulos, a junior at Westbrook High School, said he lived down the street from Arsenault and knew him well. He called Arsenault an “amazing athlete” and “a loyal friend,” and said no one had a bad thing to say about him.
Suzanne Joyce, a Westbrook School Committee member whose son, Collin Joyce, was a close friend of Arsenault, said the community is reeling.
“He was just at our house a couple months ago. He and my son went off to different colleges but they kept in touch,” Joyce said. “He was such a bright, intelligent kid, always smiling. I can’t believe this. It breaks my heart.”
Joyce’s son is a student at Maine Maritime Academy and is in the middle of a training cruise. She contacted MMA officials to let her son know.
“There is so much out there on social media, I wanted to make sure he heard it from me,” Joyce said.
A relative of Arsenault said the family did not want to comment Tuesday because it was too soon after losing him to talk.
According to friends, Arsenault came to Westbrook before his sophomore year after attending Cheverus High School as a freshman. In addition to football, he played hockey and baseball at Westbrook.
After high school, Arsenault attended Saint Leo University in Florida for a semester, but wasn’t happy at the school and being so far away from home, friends said.
He moved back and planned to return to college in the fall, Kostopoulos said, though he didn’t know where.
“He had really high ambitions,” he said.
Kostopoulos said he believes Arsenault’s death was a matter of his friend being in the “wrong place, wrong time.”
Ron Hargrove, who owns the recording studio where the shooting occurred, said Arsenault had not recorded there, but was interested in rap and hip-hop.
“”He was very curious and supportive of the music, for sure,” Hargrove said. “But he wasn’t one of these kids who would be like starting anything. That’s why it’s so sad.”
Others said Arsenault was never someone who attracted violence.
David Redmond, a sophomore and football player, said Arsenault was “just a fun guy to be around, always energetic.”
He described the scene at Westbrook High on Tuesday as “quiet, a lot of tears.”
Principal Jon Ross said Arsenault had a “big, positive personality” that resonated with classmates and faculty alike.
“Nobody saw this coming,” he said.
Staff writers Leslie Bridgers and Matt Byrne contributed to this report.
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