An Inver Grove Heights man who was a student at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire died Wednesday after falling from an upper exterior walkway of an apartment building to a parking lot.
Police in Eau Claire said Kyle G. Joswiak, 22, originally of Boyd Avenue in Inver Grove Heights, was found in the lot at 2:20 a.m. on Wednesday. He was taken to Luther Hospital in Eau Claire, where he died.
Police said Joswiak had a blood-alcohol concentration of 0.257 percent, more than three times the state's legal limit for driving. His death was ruled accidental, the result of massive head trauma.
Joswiak either climbed onto the safety rail and fell, police said, or tried to jump over the rail to the parking lot below. The two-story apartment building is three blocks from parts of the UW campus in Eau Claire.
"It's obviously a tragedy when a wonderful young man dies too soon," said Jodi Thesing-Ritter, associate dean of students at UW-Eau Claire. Joswiak was a senior majoring in broadcast journalism.
Joswiak's organs were donated. "That's one way this loss of life won't be in vain," Thesing-Ritter said.
The close-knit campus community has been hit hard by the loss, she said.
Joswiak worked at the campus TV station and had a wide network of friends.
