Massachusetts Daily Collegian

A free and responsible press serving the UMass community since 1890

A free and responsible press serving the UMass community since 1890

Massachusetts Daily Collegian

A free and responsible press serving the UMass community since 1890

Massachusetts Daily Collegian

UPDATE: Wayland man dies following apparent fall

(Katherine Mayo / Daily Collegian)

The Northwest District Attorney’s Office released new information surrounding an off-campus death: The incident involved a 20-year-old man from Wayland, Mass., who apparently fell to his death.

According to a press release from the D.A.’s office, on Saturday at approximately 2:30 a.m., the Amherst Fire Department and Amherst Police Department responded to an address on Fearing Street after receiving a 911 call regarding an injured party. First responders then located the Wayland man, who was found unresponsive with obvious injuries to his head.

“Witnesses reported that the man, who had attended a party on North Pleasant Street earlier in the evening, had run off into the yard behind a residence on Fearing Street, where authorities believe he fell from a 10-foot retaining wall, landed in a shallow brook and struck his head. The man was transported to Cooley Dickinson Hospital, where he was pronounced dead,” the D.A.’s office also stated in the release.

Mary Carey, communications director for the Northwestern District Attorney’s Office, told the Daily Collegian Wednesday that the D.A.’s office would not be releasing the name of the deceased as his death was private.

“It appears to be a private death on private property, non-criminal,” Carey told the Daily Collegian Tuesday—the press release also confirmed this previous statement.

The man was not a University of Massachusetts student, the D.A.’s office also confirmed. Rather, he was visiting friends in the area.

UMass had already said that the death was not one of their students, Western Mass News reported Monday; however, UMass spokesperson Ed Blaguszewski also said that although they don’t know the person’s relationship to the school, it is a tragedy.

The Amherst Police Department and the Massachusetts State Police Detectives Unit attached to the D.A.’s office, are still investigating the circumstances surrounding the man’s death, as well as his whereabouts and activities in the hours before his death.

The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner has yet to officially pronounce the cause of death, and toxicology results are still pending, according to the press release. Any further inquiries should be directed to the Office of Northwestern District Attorney’s Office.

Will Soltero can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @WillSoltero. Jackson Cote can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @jackson_k_cote.

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