A 3-year-old boy is dead after a massive stone monument at a Washington state public park toppled and crushed him — while his father and 5-year-old sister watched helplessly. What makes this tragedy even more devastating: his mother, a hospital nurse, was on shift when the ambulance brought her own son in.
Kaleb Ortega and his family were spending what should have been a normal afternoon at Rooks Park in Walla Walla on April 1 when the monument — honoring U.S. Naval Capt. Albert H. Rooks and the USS Houston CA-30 — collapsed without warning.
According to a lawsuit filed by Kaleb’s parents in Walla Walla County Superior Court, the structure fell “in a matter of seconds” because it was too top-heavy, unstable, and inadequately supported. The family says there were no warnings of any kind alerting visitors that the monument could be dangerous.
His father stood just feet away. His 5-year-old sister saw everything.
At the same time, Kaleb’s mother was working her Wednesday nursing shift at the hospital — until the ambulance doors opened and her son was rushed in with fatal injuries. She witnessed resuscitation efforts performed on her own child before he died.
“On what started as a normal, happy day filled with play, an unimaginable accident occurred that took Kaleb from us far too soon,” his family wrote.
The lawsuit names multiple defendants, including Boulder Designs, Border Magic, Builders FirstSource Inc., American Rock Products, Wenzel Nursery, Double T Construction Ltd., and others involved in constructing and displaying the monument. The family alleges the structure was modified during a 2019 Eagle Scout project that replaced wooden elements with heavy rock features — changes they say made it dangerously unstable.
Following the incident, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers closed Rooks Park and removed the monument.
As of mid-June, none of the named defendants have filed responses or commented publicly.
Kaleb’s family has set up a GoFundMe in his memory.
