Ann Arbor boy, 15, dies in fall from parking structure
A 15-year-old Ann Arbor boy died Tuesday after falling from the top of a seven-story University of Michigan parking structure, officials confirmed.
The teen, Benjamin Pierce, was a sophomore at Ann Arbor Huron High School, according to a statement from Jeanice Swift, superintendent of Ann Arbor Public Schools.
Pierce and two friends, fellow Huron students, were on the top of the UM Thayer Street Parking Structure before Pierce fell. All available evidence indicates the boy's fall was an accident, said Diane Brown, a spokeswoman for the University of Michigan's Division of Public Safety and Security. Police were called out at about 3:12 p.m. Details about exactly what happened are being withheld, Brown said, out of respect for the boy's family.
Grief counselors are being made available for students of Huron High School and Clague Middle School, which Pierce attended as an eighth-grader, the statement from Swift said.
"Benjamin is remembered fondly for his kind and gentle good humor; he played ice hockey and was very well-liked by his classmates," Swift wrote.