Man injured by tree branch during Sunday night storms

COLUMIBA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Sunday night, Rosetta Walton got a knock on her door from the contractor working next door.

He came to warn her a tree limb may fall on her car, but before he left her driveway a large branch fell and severely injured him, Walton said. 

Columbia police were sent to Cook Avenue at 10:30 p.m., in the thick of Sunday’s storm, for what neighbors thought were gunshots, a Columbia Police Department spokesperson said. There were no gunshots, only Walton’s neighbor under the tree limb. Medics attended to him and took him to a hospital, police said.

It wasn't clear what condition he was in Monday afternoon.

It’s unclear, Walton said, whether the branch fell because of heavy wind and rain or lightning strikes. Watson said she heard a crackling noise but could barely see through the thick rain. Walton had branches cut from the large tree in her yard recently because she was worried about them falling onto her house.

“By the time he had tried to get out of my yard, the tree had fell,” Walton said.

Walton said she does not know his condition or which hospital he went to, but she has not been able to sleep since the incident. 

The contractor, who was originally from Texas and was working and staying at the house next door, has been a good neighbor, Walton said.

“If they were neighbors, I wish that’s who was living there,” Walton said.

Walton said she contacted her insurance, but is more concerned about the injured man than the state of her yard or car.

“He was just being a good person to warn me,” Walton said. “And for something like that to happen in my yard, you know, it’s shocking to me.”