A worker installing gutters behind a multiunit residence in south Minneapolis last week touched a power line, was shocked and died, officials said Tuesday.
Ryan C. Mastracchio, 34, of Plymouth, was killed Thursday afternoon while working behind the residence in the 3200 block of Grand Avenue S., according to the Hennepin County medical examiner's office.
Electrocutions are one of the more unusual causes of work-related deaths in Minnesota, according to state safety officials. Mastracchio's is the first this year in the state and the eighth since 2008. By comparison over the same time period, 24 people have died in falls and 23 have died from being crushed.
Mastracchio was shocked shortly before 3 p.m. when he "was up on a ladder and installing a downspout that was next to the power line," said police spokeswoman Cyndi Barrington. "At some point, [the] victim touched or grabbed the power line and was electrocuted."
Mastracchio died at Hennepin County Medical Center less than an hour later, the medical examiner's office said.
James Honerman, spokesman for the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry, said his agency continues to investigate.
Mastracchio was a standout linebacker on the Wayzata High School football team in the mid-1990s, according to his family. Among his survivors are three children.
Paul Walsh
