JACKSON Miss.
The University of Mississippi student who died after suffering massive head trauma when he fell from a tree was drunk when the accident happened, officials said Thursday.
Lafayette County Coroner Lonnie Weaver said toxicology reports showed Bradley Jameson, 18, of Fort Worth, Texas, had a blood-alcohol level two times the legal limit allowed for driving.
Ole Miss officials said following Jameson’s death that there was no evidence alcohol or drugs were involved in the accident.
“It’s just extremely unfortunate and adds to the tragedy,” university spokesman Jeff Alford said of the role of alcohol Jameson’s death.
The university has been trying to stamp out the use of alcohol on campus through wide-ranging new policies. Alford said police did not find alcohol at the scene of the accident.
“The alcohol policy is immaterial here,” Alford said. “It’s just a sad and tragic story apart from whatever our policies are.”
Jameson died in a bizarre accident just weeks after arriving on campus.
He fell out of a tree Saturday outside the Beta Theta Pi house on the campus’ Fraternity Row after he apparently climbed it to retrieve a football that had gotten stuck during a late night game of catch.
Weaver said Jameson fell about 12 feet and hit his head on a concrete patio at about 3:45 a.m. He later died in a Memphis hospital. His family was on campus visiting when Jameson died.
Jameson was a graduate of All Saints’ Episcopal School in Fort Worth where hundreds of students gathered Sunday for a vigil.
His family said he came to Oxford, a town of 14,000 in northeast Mississippi, to be in a community that was focused on its university.
The fraternity where the accident occurred canceled all events this week. Jameson was not a member of the fraternity but was hanging out with some members he had befriended when the accident happened, said Scott Stewart, Beta Theta Pi president.
–Associated Press
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