A Penn State student was found by his roommates unresponsive and later pronounced dead in a downtown apartment yesterday afternoon.

Ross Trammell (junior-political science), 21, was pronounced dead at the scene after the State College Police Department responded to calls from his roommates at 3:43 p.m. yesterday, according to a police statement.

Emergency medical personnel were seen carrying a gurney out of an apartment building at 200 W. College Ave. at about 6:30 p.m. yesterday. About a dozen bystanders watched as Trammell's body, fully draped by a sheet and secured with three straps, was carried onto an ambulance that slowly drove away from the scene without its lights on.

Emergency medical personnel at the scene declined to comment.

Trammell, of West Chester, was taken to Mount Nittany Medical Center, where the Centre County Coroner's Office will perform an autopsy and toxicology tests to determine the cause of death, according to police statement.

Akash Sethi (senior-premedicine), a friend of Trammell's, said he went to high school with him at Henderson High School in West Chester.

"He's just a really a fun-loving guy, always joking around. He was always willing to help," Sethi said. "It's just kind of soon right now. Everyone basically just loved being around him."

Trammell's roommate, who answered his door last night after the incident, declined to comment about Trammell's death. His parents were unable to be reached by press time yesterday.