CHESTERFIELD COUNTY, Va. (WRIC) — Today, tragedy struck in a Chesterfield County neighborhood where a man died in a tree-cutting accident.
Police say 24-year-old Cody Nowell was accidentally killed just before 9:30 this morning, while he and another man were cutting down a tree at a home on Long Tom Lane in Chesterfield County.
Warren Ballard lives next door and says he was awakened by the news.
“My wife come running in telling me that somebody had fallen out of a tree, got hurt while cutting down a tree, so I ran up there, and a gentleman was on the ground barely breathing,” say Ballard.
When he got to him, Ballard says he had suffered head trauma and was believed to have been bleeding internally.
He says he and a nurse tried desperately to save his life, but they were too late.
He explains, “Me and a nurse rolled him over on his back and ended up starting CPR because we couldn’t get a pulse.”
Police say Nowell died at Chippenham hospital.
Ballard says Nowell was cutting above where the tree broke when the accident happened.
“He cut a notch, and when that top part of the tree fell, it broke the tree up under him that he was tied to and slammed him into the tree and into the ground,” Ballard explained.
Right now police are still investigating. They are not saying whether or not this was a professional tree cutting job.
