MINNEAPOLIS — On Tuesday night, Suicide Awareness Voices of Education (SAVE), a nonprofit dedicated to ending suicide through education, held a meeting to update the community on the progress of installing suicide prevention barriers on a bridge on the University of Minnesota campus.

Their CEO says, rather, he is sharing more so about a lack of progress.

Kayla Gaebel was a former student at the University of Minnesota. Her mother says she returned to campus on the last day of her life. Gaebel died by suicide on the Washington Avenue Bridge last November.

“Kayla was a bright, generous, beautiful, kind, young mother of two who helped others more than she typically helped herself,” said M.J. Blair, Gaebel’s mother.

Blair later founded Kayla’s HOPE to push to build barriers on the bridge. She reached out to SAVE to join the fight.

“Kayla’s hope is an idea that was born from tragedy,” said Erich Mische, SAVE’s CEO.

His organization is working with M.J. as part of Kayla’s HOPE.

“They can be mesh fences, they can be Plexiglas,” said Mische, “They can be any type of preventative structure that helps to interrupt that suicidal impulse.”

But Erich says during the fight for those barriers, they’ve run into hurdles.

“We’ve run into roadblocks where the University of Minnesota and Hennepin County point to one another, saying they have the responsibility, it’s their jurisdiction,” said Mische.

Alice Roberts-Davis is the VP for University Services at the University of Minnesota and says they are not the ones who would be responsible for added barriers. It would be the county.

“It’s got a very complicated ownership structure that we’ve been working through,” said Roberts-Davis.

Roberts-Davis says she has continuously met with SAVE and Blair, and introduced them to legislative leaders to assist in their efforts. But she said that even if it was in their jurisdiction, closing the heavily trafficked bridge would be unrealistic.

“Our best option at this point in time is to ensure that we’re monitoring it closely and that we’re responding to any mental health crises,” said Roberts-Davis.

Roberts-Davis said they have added signage to the bridge and continuous security cameras to prevent deaths.

The county says it would need to be a multijurisdictional effort.

The University said they do keep track of the number of people who end their lives on that bridge, but the information wasn’t immediately available.

In a statement, the county said that it “supports this important initiative and has been exploring a variety of options with partners like closing the outside pedestrian crossing, adding temporary railing, and increasing education and signage.”

Studies, including one from the National Institute of Health, suggest barriers are an effective deterrent. SAVE estimates it would cost less than a million dollars for installation.

“The benefit of these barriers helps to interrupt the suicidal impulse that someone may have,” said Mische.

M.J. says overcoming those obstacles will be worth it if those barriers can save someone else’s child.

“You just don’t want that pain to fall on anybody else,” she said.

ST AUGUSTA, Minn. — Alexander “Xander” Mick, the 13-year-old boy who died on Oct. 12 at a haunted hayride, was volunteering when the deadly incident occurred, officials say.

The Stearns County Sheriff’s Office said Mick was a volunteer at the Harvest of Horror Haunted Hayride in St. Augusta when he was run over by a trolley wagon being pulled by a tractor. According to a press release, Mick’s job at the hayride was to frighten the riders being pulled through the cornfield area.

Nobody witnessed the incident, but deputies say that the initial investigation indicates that it was an accident.

Officials say staff and bystanders, including an off-duty police officer and an off-duty medic, immediately started to render aid, but Mick was pronounced dead at the scene. 

The obituary described Mick as an active eighth-grader at Sauk Rapids-Rice Middle School who was involved in band, choir, robotics, soccer, Taekwondo and Boy Scouts. He was also very involved in his faith community, where he worked with kids and played in the praise band. 

“Xander was always so helpful, scientific, very techy, loved computers, was full of energy, had a great sense of humor and an infectious smile. He loved Jesus with all his heart and shared that with others,” reads the obituary published on the Williams Dingmann Funeral Home website. “Xander was kind, very polite, unique, creative, investigative, and saw the good in everyone. He always tried to be first to say, ‘Love you more.’”  

The hayride announced last week that it would be closing for the season.

A GoFundMe has been set up to support Mick’s family. As of Tuesday, it had raised nearly $41,000, which exceeds the initial goal of $30,000.

“We are so overwhelmed by the love and generosity of our friends and community that helped us reach our goal,” the organizers wrote in an update on the fundraiser. “Any further funds donated after meeting the Mick’s expenses will be used as memorials in Xander’s name to bless families, ministries, and organizations in our communities.”

MINNEAPOLIS — The number of people applying to the Minneapolis Police Department is up – as of Tuesday morning, that number is up 78% year to date compared to last year. With 1,125 applicants, that seems like a number that would excite the department.

Instead, Chief Brian O’Hara says it’s not nearly enough.

“We will hire more people for sworn positions this year than what we will lose,” O’Hara said. “But the problem is, it’s not good enough.”

“We need to be hiring at least 100 people a year in order to maintain the police department and have a slight increase each year,” he continued.

Despite all those applications, O’Hara says they’ve hired 60 people so far this year – something he says is the most number of people they’ve hired in close to 10 years.

“While we are seeing the increase in applications, we are not seeing as great an increase as we should be in people that are then being forwarded to us to be hired onto the police department,” he said. “And that’s very concerning.”

The chief puts that on their hiring process – something he says needs to change.

“The way the system traditionally has operated is not conducive to the reality of what is needed to get the best candidates in the door. The reality is people can apply here today, they can change their mind next week, and there’s options, endless, endless options in policing around this state,” O’Hara said.

O’Hara says he wants to focus more on keeping applicants engaged throughout the hiring process.

“If we want to get those folks that are considering Minneapolis, we have to stay on them and reassure them and make sure we hold on to them until we actually get them in the door and get them in a position,” he said.

Applicant data came from a city auditor’s report. In that report, diversity among candidates is also discussed.

Of those 1,125 candidates, 85% are male and 15% are female. 64% are minority candidates.

“We need to better target some of our underrepresented communities in the city for the police department, and in particular, you know, the Native and Latino communities,” O’Hara said. “We’ve had tremendous increases in applications, and the vast majority of them are minority applicants.”