{"id":42648,"date":"2025-01-25T00:23:46","date_gmt":"2025-01-25T00:23:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pulsperry.com\/?p=42648"},"modified":"2025-02-27T17:47:00","modified_gmt":"2025-02-27T17:47:00","slug":"man-22-dies-after-best-friends-prank-goes-horribly-wrong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pulsperry.com\/?p=42648","title":{"rendered":"Man, 22, Dies Aft>>>>>>>>>>>>>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Conner Groom, from Clacton-on-Sea, was just 22 years old when he lost his life five weeks after suffering a \u2018catastrophic\u2019 spinal injury.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

People have taken to social media and paid tribute to Groom following reports of his passing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One Facebook user writes: \u201cSo sad. Thoughts go out to his friends and family.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A second says: \u201cBless him, lovely lad gone. So tragic.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRIP, what a terrible tragedy,\u201d a third person pens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The inquest into Groom\u2019s death heard how he had been at Topgolf, in Chigwell, Essex, for a work Christmas party in December 2021 when the tragedy unfolded, per the BBC<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Groom\u2019s group, from a bricklaying company, had been \u2018drinking<\/a>\u00a0heavily\u2019 after travelling via coach from Weeley, near Clacton-on-Sea, to the golf driving range.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They arrived at 7pm and drank alcohol at the bar. An hour later, they were taken to the first floor of the two-story building.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The inquest heard how the group were \u2018having a laugh and a joke\u2019 by pushing each other into the safety net at the edge of the golfing bay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Detective Inspector Lydia George told the hearing how staff had warned the party on several occasions to stop \u2018messing around\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\"Conner
Conner Groom died after a prank by his friend went wrong. Credit: GoFundMe<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

She said Groom was shoved onto the safety netting twice and before his fatal fall, he had pushed one of his friends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

George added that at 10:08pm, the 22-year-old lined up to take a shot and his friend told a member of the group he was going to push him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The unnamed friend came \u2018running from behind\u2019 Groom and pushed him after the latter had struck a golf ball.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The hearing heard how Groom tumbled over the safety net and fell around 12 feet, landing face-first on the driving range below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Groom\u2019s foot had reportedly become momentarily stuck on the netting as he fell, so he had \u2018no control whatsoever over how he landed\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Security guard Dion McKenzie said his friend rushed down the stairs and repeatedly said to Groom: \u201cI\u2019m sorry, I\u2019m sorry,\u201d as he lay on the floor with blood coming from his nose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Conner Groom, from Clacton-on-Sea, was just 22 years old when he lost his life five weeks after suffering a \u2018catastrophic\u2019 spinal injury. People have taken to social… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":42649,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pulsperry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42648"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pulsperry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pulsperry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pulsperry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pulsperry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=42648"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/pulsperry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42648\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51865,"href":"https:\/\/pulsperry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42648\/revisions\/51865"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pulsperry.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/42649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pulsperry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=42648"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pulsperry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=42648"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pulsperry.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=42648"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}