Charleston police officers observed large amounts of alcohol at the scene of a tragic death of a College of Charleston student. Spencer G. Pitts, 23, died after falling from the third floor of a Corinne Street residence.
In the report, the police note that both the inside of the residence and the roof were “cluttered with beer cans and bottles of alcohol” and that “[a]ll witnesses also had an odor of alcohol emanating from their breath and persons.” The report also states that several cans of beer and a bottle of wine were on top of a covered hot tub on the third floor. An officer also found a beer can and two lawn chairs on the rooftop where Pitts and a friend had gone to look at the stars.
When police arrived on the scene at 3:26 a.m. — approximately 11 minutes after Pitts reportedly lost his footing on a step ladder leading from the third-floor balcony to the rooftop — an officer discovered a white step-ladder and a beer can where Pitts had landed on the road. By the time that officer arrived at 23 Corrine St., EMS had taken Pitts to MUSC.
One witness on the street at the time of the accident says he saw a party taking place on the third-floor balcony and that individuals were “throwing unknown liquids at each other.” He also observed one individual leaning over the ledge and then later fall. The report notes that the roof was wet and slippery.
The victim died at approximately 3:57 a.m. at MUSC.
Several individuals witnessed the accident and either saw or tended to the victim after he fell. Foul play is not suspected.
According to Charles Francis, public information officer for the Charleston Police Department, the Charleston County Coroner’s Office is awaiting the release of a toxicology report.
A senior CofC economics major, Pitts was a Greenwich, Conn., native. The Stamford (Conn.) Advocate reports that Pitts was “an accomplished skier, golfer, and tennis player, and that he had interned at FrontPoint Partners, a hedge fund co-founded by his uncle.” The paper notes that “his mother expected him to wind up on Wall Street at some time.”
A childhood friend described Pitt as “a really genuine guy, very kind and very gentle and very thoughtful. He was a very loyal and trusting friend who genuinely cared abut his friends and his family.”
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