By Colin Young, News Staff
A 30-year-old man was found unresponsive in the stairway of the Renaissance Parking Garage at 835 Columbus Ave. early Wednesday morning, and later pronounced dead of an apparent overdose, according to the Boston Police Department (BPD).
An attendant at the garage told police he found the victim in the stairway closest to International Village around 3:40 a.m.
Northeastern University Division of Public Safety (NUPD) officers Robert Schroeder, Jeff Freiwald and Jeremy Mahoney responded to the scene and performed CPR on the man until he was pronounced dead at 4 a.m. by a doctor at Boston Medical Center. The man has not been identified and was not affiliated with the university.
The man was found “lying face down with his head facing down the stairway,” and was in possession of a needle, according to the BPD incident report.
Jim Ferrier, associate director of public safety, declined to comment on behalf of NUPD, directing comments to Northeastern Director of Communications Renata Nyul, who said the incident did not involve the university, despite NUPD’s significant involvement and the fact that the Renaissance garage is owned and operated by Northeastern.
“It has nothing to do with Northeastern,” Nyul said in an e-mail to The News.
Although needle-administered drugs are not common on campus, Wednesday’s incident was not the first this academic year. On Nov. 6, two men were caught allegedly attempting to inject heroin in a bathroom in 716 Columbus Ave., the same building that houses the NUPD office, according to police reports.
