A Chicago woman was killed Thursday when a piece of a gargoyle fell from the Second Presbyterian Church on S. Michigan Ave. and landed on her head.
Sara Bean was walking on the street around noon with her fiancé when the statue's head became dislodged from the building. According to Chicago Police spokesman Bari Lemmon, the 34-year-old was pronounced dead at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.
Officials say that a freak accident caused the gargoyle's head to fall.
"A corner of one of the metal decorative pieces on the exterior of the building gave way," a Buildings Department spokeswoman explained. "When it fell, it struck the gargoyle on the southeast corner of the steeple causing a portion of the gargoyle to fall, striking the victim."
"He went to look at my sister," Bean's brother, Michael Willis, said of his sister's fiancé. "He looked back and saw that maybe a 30-pound limestone hit her in the head and split her head in two."
A witness to the accident, Broderick Adams, described the fiancé's distress.
"The guy was screaming hysterically, so I was basically trying to get to him and calm him down a little bit because I knew I couldn't do much for her," Adams reported.
Bean was to marry later this year and had two children, ages 8 and 14. Willis, one of Bean's four siblings, pledged to further investigate the incident. He went to Second Presbyterian after viewing his sister's body in the hospital.
"I had to say my goodbyes, and at the same time, I promised her to find out what was going on," Willis said. "And that's what I intend to do.
"I'm trying to find answers why. Why did this happen?"
The grieving brother said Bean had passed by the church "millions" of times. "I know this could have been prevented...It could have happened to if not my sister, somebody else."
In addition to caring for her children, Bean also took care of a niece and nephew, and was a nursing support services technician at Lurie Children's Hospital.
"She was a great person, genuinely cared about people," Willis stated.
DNAinfo Chicago reported that the church had been cited several times for building violations. An investigation into the incident is pending.
