"Details sought after police cruiser kills man lying in road; Incident occurred during predawn chase" by David Abel and Kathy McCabe, Globe Staff January 01, 2015
A college lacrosse player and state champion in ski racing was struck and killed by a police car early Thursday morning when he was apparently lying in the middle of an unlit road in Chatham, police said.
The officer was responding to a burglary call when his cruiser struck Garrett Gagne, 22, of Longmeadow, who had spent the night drinking with friends to celebrate New Year’s Eve, said Chatham Police Chief Mark R. Pawlina in a phone interview.
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Gagne was one of four people who died in car crashes in the area on Thursday. Two died on the Massachusetts Turnpike in Westborough, and a 17-year-old was killed in Rockland.
See: New Year’s accidents in Mass. kill 4
A not so happy New year, and I say that with all due respect and not slightly at all.
Family and friends of Gagne, who was a senior at St. Lawrence University in Canton, N.Y., were devastated.
Many gathered at the family’s home in Longmeadow to express their grief for a young man who was known as much for his academic prowess as for his athleticism. In high school, the student-athlete maintained a spot on the honor roll while scoring game-winning goals as an attacker on his lacrosse team and twice winning slalom competitions to be named the fastest skier his age in Massachusetts.
At the family’s brick Colonial, which remained decorated with Christmas wreaths on Thursday night, relatives declined to be interviewed. But several friends reached by phone and online said they were in shock.
Chelsea Milsap, 22, a senior at the university, who described herself in a phone call as one of Gagne’s closest friends, added that the circumstances of his death were puzzling to her: “The whole thing is very bizarre.”
Gagne’s death shook St. Lawrence University....
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"Student killed by cruiser had been drinking, Cape DA says; Officer, 34, ID’d as driver in fatal Chatham crash" by David Abel, Globe Staff January 02, 2015
A 22-year-old college student who was run over by a police officer while lying on a dark road in Chatham early Thursday was “seriously impaired by drugs and alcohol,” Cape and Islands District Attorney Michael O’Keefe said Friday.
Garrett Gagne of Longmeadow had consumed “hour after hour of alcohol” at bars and house parties while celebrating New Year’s Eve, O’Keefe said.
O’Keefe said Gagne, a college lacrosse player and former Massachusetts state champion in ski racing, was drinking hard alcohol, but he would not identify the drugs.
Why not?
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In Longmeadow and elsewhere, grieving family and friends recalled a young man known as much for his academic prowess as for his athleticism. At Longmeadow High School, he maintained a spot on the honor roll while excelling in sports, scoring game-winning goals as an attacker on his lacrosse team, and twice winning slalom competitions to be named the fastest skier his age in Massachusetts.
Gagne — one of four boys in his family — served as captain of the lacrosse and ski racing teams at Longmeadow High, where he was a three-time All-Scholastic and named the lacrosse team’s offensive player of the year.
“Garrett was an amazing guy, had an unreal attitude all the time and always had a smile on his face,” wrote Cam Mullins, a friend and teammate who played lacrosse with Gagne in college, in a Facebook message to the Globe.
Gagne’s relatives did not return messages requesting a statement.
I wouldn't want to talk to the Globe either.
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The kid is to blame for his own death, that's the impression I received from that article.
