UC San Diego student falls to death from dormitory window

SAN DIEGO —  An 18-year-old student at UC San Diego died early Saturday morning after he fell out of a bathroom window of a campus dormitory, county officials said Sunday.

The San Diego County medical examiner’s office reported that Aaron Fan was at a party on the eighth floor of a campus dorm.

Responding to a noise complaint, a campus officer entered the room and saw Fan go into the bathroom, the report said. A short while later, about 11:44 p.m. Friday, witnesses saw Fan fall out of the bathroom window to the ground below.

Fan was taken to Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla, where he was diagnosed with multiple injuries and was pronounced dead early Saturday morning.

UC San Diego announced Saturday that one of its students had died overnight. The university was in the midst of its annual homecoming celebration.

At the time, campus officials did not provide details of the incident.

“I write with a heavy heart this morning to share that we lost a member of the Muir College community overnight,” Muir Provost K. Wayne Yang said in an email to students.

“As we work to better understand the circumstances and respect the privacy of our student’s family, I want to assure you that we are here to support one another,” Yang said. “In this time of tragedy, let us speak respectfully of the dead. Let us treat each other with kindness. Let us be patient with each other’s emotions.”

Some students said Sunday that they had questions about the incident.

“This is an incredible tragedy,’ said Manu Agni, president of Associated Students at UCSD. “Everyone needs to respect the privacy of the victim and his family. But the university needs to be transparent about what happened and how it happened to make sure it never happens again.”

Muir is one of seven undergraduate residential campuses at UCSD, which has been straining under the pressure of record enrollment that hit nearly 43,000 this fall.

UC San Diego campus police are investigating the incident.