In what New York police called an apparent suicide, Nicholas Kemnitzer, a junior at Columbia College, died last Friday after falling out of an eighth-story window of his East Campus residence hall.
According to police reports, Kemnitzer jumped from the window shortly after noon. A facilities management worker found Kemnitzer’s body and then alerted security.
Police and a medical examiner arrived at 12:10 p.m. and pronounced Kemnitzer dead on the scene. Campus security guards, as well as administrators from Student Services, also responded to the call.
In an e-mail sent to the entire Columbia community, Dean of Student Affairs Chris Columbo wrote that the New York Police Department is continuing its investigation of the incident but that the medical examiner has ruled out foul play as a possible cause of death.
Kemnitzer, a West Virginia native, was a history major and host of a weekly program on Columbia’s WBAR radio station. In the e-mail, Columbo called Kemnitzer “a much loved member of the Columbia community.”
“On behalf of Columbia College and the entire University community, I extend deepest condolences to Nicholas’s family and to his many friends across our campus and at Barnard,” Columbo wrote in the e-mail.
Kemnitzer celebrated his 21st birthday on Nov. 1, less than two weeks prior to his death.
–Brian Ginsberg