Man 'f—ing around' with co-worker crushes victim's head with work truck while trimming trees, police say

Christopher Crimmins (Dakota County Jail).

A man in Minnesota is accused of crushing his co-worker's head when, using the shadows cast down on the street, he tried to make a machine look like it was grabbing the victim, police in the North Star State say.

Christopher Crimmins, 34, has been charged with second-degree manslaughter in the death of 26-year-old Tyler Anthony Lynch, according to a criminal complaint reviewed by Law&Crime.

On Thursday, Crimmins and Lynch were in Apple Valley, Minnesota, "trimming trees in the area," according to the charging document. The city is just south of Minneapolis.

They were working for "a few hours" with a "boom" on their work truck, which lifts, lowers, and moves heavy loads. Crimmins said he was on top of the boom while Lynch was on the ground, "cleaning up branches," the complaint says.

The men were "f—ing around," the defendant allegedly told police.

At one point, Crimmins "saw that the sunlight was casting shadows of both the grapple and of the Victim on the street." He moved the hydraulic grapple "while looking at the shadows, to make it appear as though the shadow of the hydraulic grapple was grabbing the shadow of the Victim."

According to the court document, Crimmins "was not looking at the Victim nor the grapple, and did not see that the grapple was moving towards the Victim's head." He then allegedly "closed the grapple" and "crushed" Lynch's head.

A witness reportedly said they "saw the grapple come over towards the Victim and either hit or pinch the Victim's head, causing significant injury and trauma to his head."

Officers with the Apple Valley Police Department responded to the scene and found Lynch "on the ground with a significant amount of blood around him and significant trauma to his head." He was pronounced dead.

There was "blood on the grapple that was directly above the Victim," per the complaint. Crimmins was arrested and booked into the Dakota County Jail.

His bail was set at $40,000 "without conditions." His next court appearance is set for Sept. 10.