UC San Diego freshman who fell to his death from dorm was intoxicated, autopsy finds

SAN DIEGO —  A UC San Diego freshman who died when he fell out the window of a campus dormitory in October had a blood-alcohol level of 0.27%, more than three times the legal limit for operating a motor vehicle in California.

An autopsy by the San Diego County medical examiner’s office also says that Aaron Fan, 18, tested “presumptive positive” for cannabinoids, substances found in the cannabis plant. But there was no determination as to whether he used marijuana in the hours or days before he died.

Fan’s death has been ruled an accident.

Campus authorities said Fan fell out of an eighth-floor bathroom window at Tioga Hall on Oct. 22 at 11:44 p.m., while the university was celebrating homecoming. Fan was taken to Scripps Memorial Hospital in La Jolla, where he was pronounced dead early the following day.

The accident occurred after a campus police officer entered the dorm room in which Fan was inside to investigate a noise complaint. The officer saw Fan go into the bathroom, an earlier coroner’s report said. A short while later, witnesses saw Fan fall out of the bathroom window to the ground below.

Fan enrolled at UC San Diego after graduating from Westview High School in the Torrey Highlands area of San Diego.

San Diego Union-Tribune staff writer Lyndsay Winkley contributed to this report.