Christopher Boone Crimmins was charged with manslaughter after a hydraulic grapple allegedly crushed Tyler Anthony Lynch’s head during an on-the-job prank in Apple Valley. Lynch, 26, was cleaning up branches when the tree-trimming machinery moved toward him on Thursday.
The Dakota County Attorney's Office said Crimmins was not monitoring the actual grapple or Lynch. “Crimmins was not monitoring the actual grapple or Lynch. He then opened and closed the grapple, crushing Lynch’s head.” Lynch was pronounced dead at the scene after police found him with significant blood and trauma to his head.
Apple Valley incident
Authorities said Crimmins was operating machinery on the back of a truck while Lynch was on the ground. The machine involved was described as a boom, a movable mechanical arm attached to a truck, with a hydraulic grapple at the end. Officers observed blood on the grapple, and the grapple was directly above Lynch when they responded.
The criminal complaint said Crimmins and Lynch began messing around with their shadows after noticing sunlight casting both the grapple’s shadow and Lynch’s shadow on the street. The complaint said, “He and the Victim were ‘f—ing around’ and saw that the sunlight was casting shadows of both the grapple and of the Victim on the street.” Crimmins allegedly maneuvered the grapple so that its shadow appeared to grab Lynch’s shadow.
Crimmins and Lynch
The complaint said Crimmins did not realize the grapple itself was moving toward Lynch’s head. A witness said the grapple appeared to hit or pinch Lynch’s head as it approached him. That sequence is what turned a prank into a criminal case: the movement was aimed at shadows, but the metal arm and grapple were moving over a person on the ground.
Crimmins and Lynch were coworkers in a tree-trimming job, and the fatal injury happened while both were still at work. The case now turns on the difference between where Crimmins thought the grapple was and where it actually was when he opened and closed it. That gap is central to the charge because the complaint places the machine directly over Lynch at the moment of impact.
Dakota County Attorney
For a reader following the case, the immediate fact is simple: a workplace death in Minnesota has become a manslaughter prosecution in Dakota County. The open issue is the physical sequence that moved the grapple from a shadow game into Lynch’s head, and that is the part the charge leaves for the criminal process to sort out.
