Former RPI Student Commits Suicide in CII

Posted on 29 March 2007

On the morning of Thursday, March 29, a 29-year-old RPI alumnus named Anson J. Tripp drove from his home in Amherst, Massachusetts to the campus of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute to commit suicide. Sometime before 10:00am, he entered the southwest stairwell of the Low Center for Industrial Innovation (CII) and jumped from the 9th floor.

According to Sgt. John Cooney of the Troy Police Department, conversations with the family revealed that Tripp regarded his time at RPI as an enjoyable experience, leading police to believe that he returned to RPI to commit suicide in a comfortable setting. He graduated in 2000 with a dual major B.S. in computer science and mathematics.

Around 10:00am, a school employee found the body in the CII stairwell between the 4th and 5th floors. There was an immediate response from emergency medical personnel, who quickly determined that the subject was in fact dead and had suffered an unspecified trauma.

Shortly after hearing of the incident, the RPI administration canceled all classes and closed down all academic buildings for the day. The Troy Police Department Emergency Response Team and a mutual-aid assist from the Colonie Police Department SWAT Team arrived on the scene and locked down the CII building and surrounding area. Before the cause of death was confirmed by the medical examiner, it was treated as a "suspicious death", the building was locked down, and a room-by-room sweep and evacuation was conducted.

GM Week student government elections were taking place that day at poll sites in the DCC, Rensselaer Union, and Commons dining hall. The Rules and Elections Committee, the Student Senate committee that runs the elections, received word shortly before 12:00pm that the CII was locked down, with rumors of someone having been shot. They closed their poll sites at 12:00pm and moved the election materials to the Student Government Suite in the Rensselaer Union. Polling will reopen at 10:00am on Friday, March 30 in the DCC, Union, and Commons.

Claude Rounds, Vice President for Administration at RPI, and Sgt. John Cooney of the Troy Police Department held two press conferences at 1:00pm and 5:30pm in the Center for Biotechnology and Interdisciplinary Studies. RPI TV was present at these press conferences.

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Opening Statements from 1:00pm Press Conference

SGT. JOHN COONEY: Good afternoon. At approximately 10am this morning, the Troy Police were notified by the RPI Division of Public Safety as to the fact that a school employee had located what was an obvious deceased person in the stairwell in what is called the CII building here on campus. Emergency Medical Response was immediate. Upon arrival, Troy medics determined that the subject in question was in fact deceased, with visible trauma which indicated that the subject had been subject to some sort of either intentional or accidental injury. Troy Police responded, and again, with the assistance of RPI Department of Public Safety, we immediately established a secure perimeter around the building, and RPI initiated a lockdown of the persons therein. At this point, examination of the body reveals that there has been some type of unknown trauma which did in fact cause the death of that person. The exact cause of death, I stress, has not yet been determined. Whether or not a weapon has been involved in this potential suspicious death has not yet been determined. In order to secure the area and ensure the safety of the citizens and faculty of this facility, RPI self-initiated closure of the campus in a sense, canceling all classes and closing all school offices. We stress that there is no indication whatsoever that there is any active threat to the persons present within the area of the incident. We do, however, acknowledge that we have a suspicious death, we have an undetermined cause of death, and with that in mind, we are treating this as an incident which requires the evacuation and any necessary measures to ensure the safety of the persons in the area. The Troy Police Department Emergency Response Team, along with a mutual-aid assist from the Colonie Police Department Swat Team is, as we speak, conducting an evacuation of the CII building. That evacuation, again, is primarily and specifically for the safety of the persons who are locked down upon the decision of the school to do so. There has been no indication, and there is no reason to believe, there is an active assailant of any type within the building, however until we have determined that to be one hundred percent the case, we will continue the evacuation, and we will secure the area. That is all we have to offer as far as the police end of this. Vice President of Administration, Mr. Rounds, is present here to represent the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and with him coming up next to address any issues you may have involving the school’s participation in this endeavor.

CLAUDE ROUNDS, VICE PRESIDENT FOR ADMINISTRATION: Thank you, John. Based on information provided to Rensselaer by the Troy Police as a result of an early assessment, Rensselaer, to ensure the safety of the Rensselaer community, decided to close the campus for the balance of the day. This would also allow the Troy Police and Rensselaer Public Safety to secure the campus. The information provided by John represents what Rensselaer knows regarding this incident. We took a very conservative approach and isolated the area in which this incident occurred. We took a very conservative approach to close the campus. At this particular point in time we intend to resume full campus activities tomorrow. At this particular point in time there isn’t any additional information that Rensselaer has that we can share at this point in time.

Transcript of 5:30 PM Press Conference

SGT. JOHN COONEY, TROY POLICE DEPT.: Good afternoon once again. Folks, we have spent several hours, not only ensuring the safety of the people on campus by conducting a meticulous, time consuming evacuation of the CII building, but we hav also done a careful analysis of the scene of the incident, specifically a stairwell within that building. The Rensselaer County medical examiner has responded to the scene; Dr. Michael Sikirica has transported the deceased to Albany Med, where as we speak there is an autopsy being conducted. We have no final answers for you here today, but we do have a little bit more direction than we had this morning. As we discuss this matter in this briefing, we ask you to keep in mind that although a final outcome has not yet been determined as to the cause of death in this episode, that there is family involved, and we have identified the victim and certainly do not prohibit nor ask that you do not go forward with that information, but again, due to the fact that there are more, there is more than one scenario being considered here, we ask you to keep that in mind as you go forward with the information that you have been given. At this point, we have identified the victim, and that name has been released to your respective offices through the press release we’ve issued. We will repeat that name at the conclusion of the conference, and I give that to you not now simply because, along with all the other information going in my head, I want to make sure that I don’t misstate the name. Is it out there where I can confirm if someone could just give me the name from the release? [Reply from reporter: Anson Tripp.] Anson Tripp, that is correct. 29 years old, of Amherst, Massachusetts. Mr. Tripp’s family is actually in Troy and is meeting with detectives again as we speak. A multitude of information has come to us, and we can confirm on the record the following. This department has no reason that any weapon of any type was used in today’s incident. We have no reason to believe that there is an assailant out there that presents any danger to the community. We have no reason to believe that there is any public safety issue attached to this as of this time and date. We have not determined, and the medical examiner has not declared, an exact cause of death, nor has he deemed this to be either accidental, suicidal, or homicidal. We will however, share with you that information has led us to believe that in the end, what we may find here today is simply the very tragic incident that revolved around the life and times of the victim and certainly involved no one else in the community in any criminally culpable actions. Again, that I am willing to share that information with you because I think it’s important you know that that is the information at hand as you deal with respect for the family on this matter, but that has not been confirmed in any way, it simply is fair to say that our investigation is leading us in that direction. Keep in mind that the crime scene is a stairwell, which basically has a very open area, and which nine stories would be encompassed should anyone go from the top of that stairwell in any manner. So again, those are all observations, those are not conclusions, but that’s kind of where our direction is leading us to. Rather than take questions right now, I’d like Vice President Rounds to get up and speak, that way we can address questions through both of us.

MR. CLAUDE ROUNDS, VICE PRESIDENT FOR ADMINISTRATION: Thank you John. We are very grateful for the significant efforts of the Troy Police Department, first, to secure the scene, second, to help us secure the Institute, because when this incident incurred, they were the most important things that we needed to consider to act upon, and as we discussed earlier today, our actions include a very conservative response, to close the campus. We will continue to keep the campus closed through this evening. We plan to, at this time we plan to resume full campus operations with a full academic schedule, a full business schedule, and a resumption of research activities tomorrow morning. We think it’s appropriate to stay in a kind of a closed mode this tonight because we think it’s important to give our students and the community an opportunity to dwell on this issue, and in fact, to perhaps begin to focus on it emotionally; as you know we had quite a few students and faculty and staff that was locked down in the building while the Troy and Colonie SWAT teams went through the building to make sure it was secure and safe. Again, and I think John gave you the essential details, we await further information from the medical examiner, but at this particular point in time, we will give you a few pieces of background information regarding Anson J. Tripp. He was a graduate of The Class of 2000. He was a dual major, with degrees in both degrees in both Computer Science, B.S. degrees in both Computer Science and Mathematics. He was an excellent student, and he was active in campus life here. You know he was from Amherst. At this time Rensselaer does not know, and has no specific information why he was on our campus today. And that’s all we know, and that’s all we are able to share with you at this particular point in time. Thank you.

SGT. JOHN COONEY : Before any questions, I actually do have further information I’d like to share with today. There just has been a determination made by the Rensselaer County Medical Examiner’s Office, Dr. Sikirica has officially determined at this point that the death of the victim in this case is going to be classified as a suicide. Again, there was multiple trauma to the body. Investigators had very good cause to believe that a weapon may have been involved in this based on their initial observations. However, it is important to keep in mind that in properly securing the crime scene and waiting for the authority of the Medical Examiner’s Office to arrive at the scene, the officers were very limited as to how much of an examination they could conduct. They resisted those first initial temptations to move the body to move the body to find out more information; there was no reason to go that far. So based on the observations of the Medical Examiner and the autopsy, which has just been completed, the Medical Examiner has deemed this to be a suicide. The method involved has been determined to be basically the subject climbing over a very well secured, very properly fitted railing on the ninth floor landing, and then falling approximately five and half floors to the point of impact where the body was discovered. With that in mind I think now it would be fair to take questions.

REPORTER: Was there a note?

SGT. JOHN COONEY : I can tell you that there has been no note recovered by the department in relation to this incident.

REPORTER: [Someone] said that there indication by the school as to why he might have been have on campus. Has there been any discussions with the family, any indication of why he might have been here or any indication of what may have been going on that may have led to this.

SGT. JOHN COONEY : Certainly. And I’ll answer that question trying to balance our respect for personal family matters on this case with the obvious expectation by the media to become somewhat informed as to the situation. Our investigators have spent several hours now with family members, we will state on the record that there was concern on the part of family members that the victim in this case was somewhat acting in a manner consistent with potentially self-harming himself. There has been information obtained which leads us to believe that the victim was in a state of mental duress consistent with that which would eventually make suicide an option. And other than that, the RPI connection, we haven’t established other than that RPI was a significant part of the victim’s life, and if anything, a very positive part of this victim’s life, and as we often see, a victim may seek comfort in going to someplace where he feels that it would be the safest and most rewarding place to commit such a tragic act.

REPORTER: He dealt the CII building, did he spend a significant amount of time there?

MR. CLAUDE ROUNDS: We’ve been focused on the circumstances of the day, and we have not yet had any opportunity to really track the details of the student’s life on campus in terms of where he spend a lot of time. The next steps for us, we will assist the Troy Police Department in any way to help bring closure to this investigation, we will provide support to the family, because our family is Rensselaer family, and we will provide counseling services and support to our employees who were involved in the discovery of the body, and also as first responders, and then we will also provide counseling services, which we feel is always most important, to other faculty, staff, and especially students who will be affected by this.

REPORTER: Is the CII building the tallest building on campus?

MR. CLAUDE ROUNDS: The CII is – that’s a relative term – but it is the tallest in the number of stories. EMPAC, a building under construction will be a similar height, but it is the tallest building on campus.

REPORTER: As a computer science major and a math major, would there generally be classes or labs that would have perhaps taken him to that building?

MR. CLAUDE ROUNDS: As a dual major both computer science and math, there is a high probability that he was in almost every building on campus from time to time and we would not be surprised to discover that he had some classes at one time or another in the CII. We just have not considered that a priority in terms of information to be collected at this point.

REPORTER: Can either of you explain or say that this railing was well secured properly to the rail there? Is there any thought of changing access to that area? Is this an easily accessed area where the door would normally be locked? Is this the type of thing where there is any sort of barrier between the top of a railing and, say, the ceiling so someone wouldn’t normally be-

MR. CLAUDE ROUNDS: First of all, this stairwell serves as one of the fire exists to the building, so the idea of locking that stairwell has safety implications. Clearly one of the next steps as we close out the investigation with the city police department is also to identify anything that we can learn from this incident. At this particular point in time, there doesn’t appear to be anything specific and we wouldn’t have done differently. It’s a standard stairwell in design and constructed and maintained like many exit stairs in a high-rise building.

REPORTER: Is there any guess at which time Anson may have gone into the building.

MR. CLAUDE ROUNDS: The incident was reported at about ten o’clock, so we suspect that he was certainly in the building moments before that but we, at this particular point in time – and that’s one of the things as we close out the investigation – we will spend more time debriefing any employee or anyone who may have information regarding Anson and try to piece together and close out the investigation. We don’t think any of those things are pertinent to the circumstances, but we certainly want to work with the Troy Police Department to make sure that we have full closure on this case.

REPORTER: [Is there any indication why the victim was here -- was he visiting any family or friends here]

SGT. JOHN COONEY : He is from Massachusetts, the subject travelled from Massachusetts early this morning to Troy, and again I fall back on my earlier comment that the information which has been given us, which we do quite often see when someone takes their own life, is that RPI was a comfortable place, a safe place, for the victim, and a big part of the victim’s life, and although its awkward to say that RPI was a positive part of the story, in the victim’s eyes, RPI was a suitable place for him to commit this tragic act.

SGT. JOHN COONEY : Okay, in closing from my perspective, I just want to stress that the cooperative effort between RPI and our department in this has been eye-opening for us. It’s been an effort that never stopped as far as ensuring the safety of the members of not only the RPI community, but the surrounding neighborhoods. There were some extraordinary measures taken today for some very legitimate and very proper reasons. Again, it’s sad that we have to stand here today and discuss this information, but when our department debriefs, when our department looks back at what happened here today, we will take nothing but positive information and findings from it. RPI successfully partnered with us today in a way that was above and beyond anything that we would expect, and it was just so well done on their part, and, of course from my own perspective, very well done on the part of the Troy police department. Thank you.