A Chicago woman was struck and killed Thursday by a chunk of stone that fell off a gargoyle statue on a 140-year-old church.
Sarah Bean, a 34-year-old mother of two, was walking on a sidewalk three stories beneath Second Presbyterian Church when a chunk broke off the gargoyle and struck Bean on the head, the Chicago Tribune reported.
The noon tragedy happened in front of Bean's fiancé, Lance Johnson, who was out for a lunch date with Bean before the start of her shift at Lurie Children's Hospital. Johnson was seen placing his hands on either side of Bean's head while screaming, witnesses told the newspaper.
Witnesses said Bean was killed instantly.
"I saw that crack on her head and thought, 'She's definitely dead,' " Broderick Adams, who saw the incident from his apartment window across the street, told the Tribune.
The chunk apparently broke off when a piece of decorative metal on the church's façade came loose and fell on top of a gargoyle sticking out from the church's southeast tower.
