By Owen Boss
Boston Herald
CHATHAM — Authorities are probing a fatal “tragic accident” in Chatham after a cop ran over a 22-year-old college student lying in the road, police said.
Police said it’s not clear what Garrett Gagne’s condition was before an officer — who they did not immediately identify — ran him over on Crowell Road shortly after 4 a.m., as he was driving to an emergency call.
The officer hit what police described as an “unknown object,” and immediately stopped, only to find it was a body, Chatham police said. The officer got out of his cruiser and gave the man, later identified as Gagne, medical aid before Gagne was taken to Cape Cod Hospital, where he was pronounced dead, police said.
Authorities said Gagne was on the Cape partying with friends for New Year’s Eve.
Hours after the accident, Gagne’s friends wept and consoled each other as they put together a small roadside memorial in Chatham yesterday afternoon.
“Everyone loved him,” said Dave Hovey, 24, of Boston, a longtime friend and former lacrosse teammate. “We’re all from Chatham and we all were with him last night. We are still in shock.”
The friends declined to comment on where Gagne was last night or how he could have wound up in the middle of the dark road.
“He was the nicest kid you’ll ever meet,” said Jonathan Root, Gagne’s college roommate. “He was a great athlete, he did his schoolwork, he did it all.”
Gagne, a former two-time state ski champion at Longmeadow High, was set to graduate this year from St. Lawrence University in New York, where he was a four-year member of the school’s lacrosse team and majored in government, according to school officials.
St. Lawrence President William L. Fox said in a message to the school community today that the incident has plunged the school into “immediate, heart-breaking sadness.”
Fox said Gagne was a “leader, mentor and friend.”
“His smile and enthusiasm were contagious,” he said. “He could light up the field and sidelines with his personality. This sudden and shocking loss touches every one of us who knew him as one of our best.”
State police and Cape & Islands District Attorney Michael O’Keefe’s office have been called in to investigate.
Police said they didn’t know why Gagne was lying in the road or “what the victim’s condition was just prior to the accident.” They described the stretch of road as “unlit with no street lights and no exterior lighting on the nearby buildings” at the time of incident.
Chathtam police Chief Mark Pawlina said the officer — whose name will be released today — is “very distraught and very upset,” and as of today, remains on full duty.
Pawlina said the probe will look at whether the officer was speeding at the time and what role, if any, alcohol played before Gagne made it into the road.
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