Coroner: Accidental overdose killed Zachary Robinson
Details surrounding the death of Zachary Robinson, a third-year civil engineering student and former member of Sigma Alpha Epsilon from Greenville, S.C., emerged Wednesday afternoon.
Richland County Coroner Gary Watts determined the cause of death as an overdose on a combination of a painkiller and alcohol.
Robinson had a blood alcohol content of 0.10 at the time, Watts said, and toxicology testing also found oxymorphone, an opiate painkiller.
When Robinson returned to his South Pickens Street home after midnight on the morning of Saturday, Feb. 4., his friends told police he looked intoxicated and "possibly under the influence of a narcotic," an incident report said.
According to the report, Robinson went to his room and his friends checked on him about 10 minutes later. They found him lying unconscious on his bed; after they roused him, he vomited and his friends took him to Richland Memorial Hospital.
They arrived at the hospital at 1:14 a.m.; six minutes later, Robinson was pronounced dead.
Associate Vice President for Student Affairs Jerry Brewer offered his condolences to Robinson's family Wednesday and emphasized the university's efforts in preventing future incidents.
"In a situation like this, with a young man that had lots of promise and was enrolled at the university like Mr. Robinson, it's just tragic," Brewer said, continuing to offer the counseling services on campus as a support network for Robinson's friends and family. "There are a lot of situations at the university that students are going through life that they need to make better decisions. That's our job in the area of drinking or other issues.
"There are, at the highest levels of the university, active discussions going on and active planning and actions ongoing. We can never do enough, but we're wanting to do more — we're wanting to provide assistance in that area. We'll just continue to do that and work as hard as we can."