A female midshipman was pronounced dead Monday after she was found unconscious in her dormitory room at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, officials said.
The fourth-class midshipman, in her first year at the academy, was found by her roommates unconscious and not breathing in her bed late Monday morning, academy officials said in a statement released late Monday afternoon.
Emergency personnel responded to the scene and rushed the midshipman to Anne Arundel Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead at 12:46 p.m., officials said.
The academy said the student?s name would be withheld until her family members could be
notified.
The circumstances surrounding the cause of her death are being investigated, and foul play is not suspected, officials said.
“The Naval Academy is deeply saddened by this sudden and tragic loss. Our deepest sympathies and condolences go out to this midshipman?s family,” Vice Adm. Jeffrey Fowler, Naval Academy superintendent, said in the
statement.
Annapolis Mayor Ellen Moyer said she did not have specific information about the incident but that grief counselors would be made available to the midshipman?s family if necessary.
“We live in a city of contrasts. … Like peaks and valleys, the emotional roller coaster that we seem to be on is on a continual basis,” Moyer said Monday evening.
“To the friends and family, I know it?s a tough time and there aren?t any words that one can use. You try to always extend your sympathy, but there are hardly words you can say because the death of a family member is so tragic.”
Annapolis police said they were not assisting military police in the investigation.
“It?s all being handled internally; they have their own police, and we don?t have anything to do with it,” police spokesman Hal Dalton said.
“They?re being pretty tight-lipped about it.”
