College Student Killed While Kayaking On Potomac River: Officials

MONTGOMERY COUNTY, MD — A Columbia University student died Sunday after she became trapped under a rock while kayaking on the Potomac River in Montgomery County, officials said.

According to Montgomery County Fire and Rescue Service's Pete Piringer, officials responded to a call for assistance near C & O Canal National Historic Park around 3:15 p.m. Sunday. Piringer said a woman kayaking with about two dozen other people became pinned “under a rock (in hydraulics)" during the trip.

Multiple people came to the woman's aid before first responders arrived, Piringer said, but she did not survive.

The woman was later identified as Ella Mills, a junior at Columbia University in New York City. According to a statement by university President Minouche Shafik, Mills was on a trip with the Columbia University Whitewater Kayaking Club prior to her death.

"Words cannot express how heartbroken I feel for her family, her friends, her loved ones, and those students from the University who were with her on this trip," Shafik wrote.

Lisa Rosen-Metsch, dean of Columbia University's School of General Studies, said Mills was originally from Dublin, Ireland, and arrived in the United States earlier this month to begin her studies at Columbia.

In a statement, Rosen-Metsch said, "Ella had a love for learning, was intellectually curious, and passionate about literature — eager to soak in new ways of looking at literature and viewing the world as a literary scholar."