Two male Amherst campus residents died early Tuesday morning after shattering an eighth floor Fargo Quadrangle window and falling to the Ellicott Complex second floor terrace.
Marcy B. Ford, aged 21 from Buffalo, and Michael A. McClendon, aged 22 from Niagara Falls, were pronounced dead at Millard Fillmore Suburban Hospital at 2 a.m. According to Earl Cartwell of the Erie County Medical Examiner's Office, Ford died of "internal bleeding due to laceration of the heart," and McClendon died of "cerebral contusions and lacerations of various organs."
According to University News Bureau official John Thurston, there was an argument in Fargo resident Brenda Geter's eighth floor room between her and Ford, a Governors' resident. McClendon, a Resident Advisor (RA) from the Wilkeson Quad, who was up on the Fargo floor, went in to break it up. The argument moved toward the corridor and window space. McClendon stepped between Ford and Geter to physically separate them.
"Ford and McClendon came together at the window, causing them to break it and fall out," said Thurston. The call came in to the Department of Public Safety at approximately 1:19 a.m.
Fargo Head Resident Phil Samuels explained that McClendon was acting as a friend, not as an RA. "He was acting in the right way," Samuels said. "But they just were a bunch of friends. Everybody knew each other."
Freak accident
"No one was trying to kill anyone," Samuels added, reiterating that the altercation was more of a scuffle than a fight. The Head Resident noted, "These kinds of scuffles happen all the time. It's just the circumstances that made this particular one become a freak accident."
Circumstances surrounding the tragedy reveal that a wooden railing, which usually is across the approximately four-by-five foot picture window, was missing. The floor's RA, Kathy Burke, who is responsible for residents on the eighth, ninth, and tenth floors of the Fargo tower, said she has filed between four to six work orders to fix the bar.
Samuels said he "had no idea" if the bar was ever fixed and perhaps re-broken. When asked if the barrier could have prevented the tragedy, Samuels said, "The bar is there to prevent anybody from falling out of the window. You can draw your own conclusions."
Thurston, when asked how a supposedly thick picture window could break, replied, "It is pretty thick, but that one sure did."
One RA, who did not wish to be identified, said that there are bars missing from windows throughout Ellicott. "I'm sure they will be fixed now," she said.
Thurston revealed that before Ford died, charges of criminally negligent homicide had been filed against him for his role in the incident. No further legal action has been taken, he noted.
No chance
Following the incident, a team of campus Emergency Medical Technicians arrived on the Ellicott terrace, "almost instantly, with massive equipment," according to Samuels. "If there was any chance of saving them with CPR," he said, "they'd be alive now."
Both Director of Public Safety Lee Griffin and Thurston reported that the Getzville Ambulance workers praised the newly trained emergency team.
Griffin told the Buffalo Evening News that the eyewitnesses were "very emotionally shocked. We couldn't talk to them very much." The Director said they were given sedation at the Erie County Medical Center.
Tuesday morning, RAs, Head Residents, and floor members—who had been barraged with TV cameras and the press—were tired and tense.
Much of the preceding night's "hysteria," according to Griffin, had calmed down. Although Samuels said crowds were kept under control, Ellicott RA John Cima asserted that one staff writer for The Spectrum had gotten in the way and acted "in an unprofessional manner."
"You can't go around trying to prevent this type of incident," Samuels remarked. "It really was just a freak accident."
Thurston reported that both the Attorney General's office and the State Dorm Authority will conduct an investigation—which he said will include why the bar was missing.
E-mail: news@ubspectrum.com
