A Mississippi State University student died Saturday hours before the school’s graduation ceremony after falling from atop the campus stadium’s scoreboard, authorities said.
The Oktibbeha County coroner says Andrew Demboski, 21, slipped and fell from the top of the video board at the Davis Wade football stadium at Mississippi State University in Starkville around 1:30 a.m. Saturday, according to Fox 40 Jackson.
He plunged 18 feet and struck his head, the station reported Saturday.
Paramedics worked on the student for more than hour before pronouncing him dead, according to the station.
Students and faculty remembered Demboski with a moment of silence at the Saturday morning commencement ceremony at the Humphrey Coliseum, Fox 40 reported.
Demboski was in his junior year at the school, studying environmental economics and management, the Jackson Clarion-Ledger reported.
Mississippi State and Oktibbeha County authorities were investigating how Demboski and two others students reached the top of the Jumbotron.
“What he was walking on was not designed to be walked on,” Oktibbeha coroner Michael Hunt told the paper. “We’re lucky all three of them didn’t get hurt.”
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