by Clara NiiSka

Maricruz Ruacho, age 11, was crushed to death when a stack of 24-foot wooden trusses fell onto her on Monday evening, October 14^th.  The trusses were among the construction materials for the Nibiwa Siibin complex being stored at a vacant lot on 1400 East Franklin, near the Minneapolis American Indian Center in south Minneapolis.  The Nibiwa Sibiin (East River) complex is being built by the American Indian Housing and Economic Development Corporations at 15^th and Franklin.  When this writer examined them on Wednesday evening, the sites are readily accessible to curious children looking for a place to play.

Sergeant Medaria Arradondo, spokesperson for the Minneapolis Police Department, told Press/ON that a number of children, including Mariacruz and her younger brother Blas Ruacho Jr., were apparently “playing at the site, crawling through the materials.”  The other children, who were not injured, went for help, flagging down a Metro Transit squad car.

Maricruz’s father, Blas Ruacho, was flanked by dozens of family members late Monday as he stood staring at the scene where his daughter died, at that time cordoned off by police tape.  Ruacho said he was at work when he got the news.

According to Minneapolis police Lt. Ken Olson, the police are treating the child’s death as an accident.  City inspectors were called in to survey the scene, and officials from the Occupational Safety and Health Division were contacted, Olson said.

Speaking through a translator, Ruacho told Star Tribune reporter Howie Padilla that his daughter was a sixth grader at Folwell Middle School.  She loved to play the violin and enjoyed going to church,  “She never missed a church service,” he said.

Ruacho said he hadn’t known the children to play where the materials were, and wondered aloud why there wasn’t a fence to keep people safe.