Freak Hammock Accident Kills Young Minnesota Child

BIG LAKE, Minn. (AP) — A 5-year-old boy has died when a tree fell on him as he was playing on a hammock in central Minnesota.

Sherburne County Sheriff Joel Brott says Edward Joseph Michalek was playing on the hammock with other children in Big Lake Township on Tuesday evening when a 7-foot-tall tree to which one end of the hammock was tied uprooted, fell and hit the boy on the head. He died at the scene.

The Star Tribune reports the sheriff calls it "a freak accident."

Friends have set up a GoFundMe page to help the family with the child's funeral expenses.