Around 10 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 15, as storms pushed wind gusts of about 30 mph across St. Louis, a tree on Gimblin Street came down on a 33-year-old man. Clayton Thomas died at a hospital that night, the St. Louis medical examiner’s office confirmed. A neighbor described the tree as already half decayed, and residents and the city now disagree over who was responsible for keeping it from falling.
The tree stood on private property in the Baden neighborhood, just north of Bellefontaine Cemetery, on the city’s north side.
What happened on Gimblin Street
Police received a call for a person trapped under a tree, First Alert 4 (KMOV) reported. Officers said the tree fell on Thomas during the storms. A nearby resident told the station the aging tree collapsed onto Thomas and several parked cars. Another neighbor described broken glass from a Chrysler 300 scattered across the scene and distraught people gathered on the street.
First Alert 4 meteorologists put the wind gusts that night at around 30 mph…