[CHICAGO.CBSLOCAL] A 34-year-old woman died Thursday afternoon after falling masonry hit her on the head outside a church in the South Loop neighborhood.
| No, the gargoyle was not one of ours... |
Part of a gargoyle statue struck the woman in the head after falling from the Second Presbyterian Church of reliably Democrat Chicago, aka The Windy City or Mobtown
... home of Al Capone, a succession of Daleys, Barak Obama, and Rahm Emmanuel,...
at 19th and Michigan, just after noon.
Killed was Sarah Bean of Chicago, a mother of two, who was just a few blocks away from home when the incident occurred.
Her fiance, Lance Johnson, tells CBS 2 the two were walking when a gust of wind could be felt.
"I felt like something happened. I looked back and she was on the ground," he said.
A spokeswoman for the city's Building Department says a chain reaction was to blame for the falling stone. A corner of one of the metal decorative pieces on the exterior of the building gave way, striking a gargoyle statue on the southeast corner of the steeple and causing a portion of it to fall. The church is more than 100 years old.
"There have been no violations or critical issues," church pastor David Neff tells CBS 2's Mike Parker. "We're just saying prayers for the woman."
The church failed inspections between 2007 and 2011, but an inspection in October 2013 found no violations. |