Notre Dame Senior Killed In Fall One Day Before Graduation
(CBS) -- A dark shadow's been cast on graduation weekend for students at the University of Notre Dame after a 21-year-old senior fell off a roof early Saturday morning and died, reports WBBM's Veronica Carter.
The university identified the student as William Meckling of Centennial, Colo. University police say he was with a small group of students who got up onto the roof of the Joyce Center on campus.
They think the wetness of the roof caused by the rain caused him to slip and fall.
A couple of his friends went running for help but when paramedics arrived there was nothing they could do for him.
CPR was given and he was rushed to the hospital but pronounced dead.
The university said Meckling was supposed to get his diploma Sunday.
"Our thoughts and prayers are with Billy's family and friends after this terrible tragedy," Rev. John I. Jenkins, C.S.C., the University president said in a press release. "It is a profound sadness for all of us, on this graduation weekend, to lose someone so young and brimming with promise."
Meckling was a mechanical engineering major and a member of the fencing team.