AUBURN – An 18-year-old Auburn man was pronounced dead Saturday and a 23-year-old man arrested, accused of providing the alcohol that police say killed him.

Dead was Adam Beggs, 18. Arrested was Larando Sweeting, 23, also of Auburn.

One Edward Little principal who knew Beggs called his death “very sad” and remembered him as a kind person who would listen to other students’ problems.

Early Saturday morning police responded to a second floor apartment at 22 Granite St. after getting a call about an unresponsive male. Police immediately started CPR on Beggs. He was transported to Central Maine Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead, police said.

There had been a party at site, said Sgt. Eric Audette. “Everyone at the gathering knew each other,” he said. He declined to say how much alcohol Beggs consumed, saying the case is under investigation.

After interviewing several witnesses, police arrested Sweeting. In addition to furnishing alcohol to a minor, he was charged with unsworn falsification and violation of conditions of release.

In September he was arrested for gross sexual assault and abuse of a minor. His bail conditions were that he refrain from consuming alcohol and not commit any crimes, said Audette. On Saturday afternoon Sweeting was being taken to the Androscoggin County Jail.

A person is guilty of furnishing alcohol to a minor if he or she in any way assists in furnishing, giving, selling or delivering alcohol to a minor. Providing alcohol jumps from a Class D misdemeanor to a Class C felony when the consumption by the minor causes serious bodily injury or death, police said.

Beggs graduated from Edward Little in June, Assistant Principal Leslie Morrill said Saturday.

“I knew him real well. He was a wonderful, unique kid. I had great conversations with him. He was creative and liked being different.”

Beggs was talented with computers and had signed up to study computers at Central Maine Community College. “But it didn’t work out for him at the time,” she said. “He was more than capable.”

Morrill remembered Beggs as “gentle. He was the kind of kid who’d sit and listen to other kids’ troubles. There wasn’t a mean bone in his body.” Morrill also knows Beggs’ mother and younger brother, who attends Edward Little and works with her in the Unity Project, a student group that promotes social justice. “His brother is just dear,” Morrill said. “His mother is a great mom.”

His father, Daniel Beggs, said little Saturday except that “it’s a travesty this has happened.”

At Edward Little each of the four assistant principals are assigned to work with a class. They stay with them all four years. Beggs’ Class of 2007 was Morrill’s. “When you have these kids for four years, they’re like your kids,” Morrill said. “This is really a tragedy.”