CT Community Mourns WCSU Students Killed In Crash

DANBURY, CT — Friends of the two Western Connecticut State University students killed in a crash in Colchester Friday have established online fundraising campaigns to assist their families with funeral expenses.

Jacob Chapman and Tyler Graham, both 18-years-old business majors and members of the WCSU Mens Lacrosse Team, died when their car left the roadway and collided with a metal beam guardrail as well as multiple trees around 1 p.m.

John B. Clark, WCSU president, released a statement saying the school was planning a memorial for Chapman and Graham on campus soon. "We continue to mourn the loss of two of our promising young students and hope for a strong recovery for Trey," Clark said.

"Our counseling center has met with players and coaches of the lacrosse team and we will also provide counseling to students in Litchfield Hall, where the three team members lived on campus, as well as any students in need," Clark posted to social media.

The students were traveling westbound in a 2010 Nissan Altima on Route 354 when they attempted to pass another westbound vehicle "at a high rate of speed on the left," according to the report from the Connecticut State Police.

Driver Chapman was taken to Marlborough Medical Clinic, where he succumbed to his injuries. Graham was pronounced dead at the scene of the crash. A third student, Trey Massaro, 19, a Justice and Law Administration major, was taken to Hartford Hospital where he was treated for serious injuries, according to the troopers' report.

The crash shut down Route 354 at Lake Hayward Road for about five hours Friday afternoon.

The office of Colchester First Selectman Mary Bylone released a statement over the weekend saying that the community was "heartbroken:"

"Both Jake and Tyler were deeply committed to their community and to their schools. Full of promise and hope for the future, they represented the best of Colchester's young people and will be sorely missed by all who knew and loved them," the statement read in part.

Jack Spaulding, a friend of Chapman and Graham, both graduates of Bacon Academy High School in Colchester, established GoFundMe pages for the pair online Sunday.

"Tyler aka Mambo was fierce on the lacrosse field but had a heart of gold. He will be missed so much by the Colchester community, his friends and his family," Spaulding said in his online tribute.

Spaulding wrote that Chapman possessed a "magnetic personality and anyone who met him couldn't help but smile."

The accident remains under investigation by State Police.

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