WATCH: Jones Co. teen trapped under fallen tree

Exclusive body cam video released by the Jones County Sheriff’s Department, with the family’s permission, shows first responders rescuing a 14-year-old boy trapped under a fallen tree.
Published: Jul. 25, 2022 at 7:26 PM CDT
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JONES COUNTY, Miss. (WDAM) - Exclusive body cam video released by the Jones County Sheriff’s Department, with the family’s permission, shows first responders rescuing a 14-year-old boy trapped under a fallen tree.

“Sitting, watching your child trapped and there’s nothing you can do, is just a parent’s worst nightmare,” Kenneth Harvey said.

Around 5 a.m. on July 12, Kenneth said a large tree landed on their mobile home in Soso. He and his wife immediately ran to check on their three children, and that’s when they found two of their sons under the tree and covered in debris.

“It looked like a whole bunch of white stuff had done fallen on my face, and I just looked like, I don’t know, it scared me,” 17-year-old Wyatt Harvey said. “Next thing I know, daddy comes running in, and momma goes screaming, and I didn’t ever hear my brother, so I was kind of worried.”

Wyatt escaped with minor scrapes, but that wasn’t the case for his younger brother Christian, who was unresponsive and pinned underneath the tree.

Firefighters had to use chainsaws and the jaws of life to raise the tree just enough to pull the boy out.

Christian was then taken to South Central Regional Medical Center in Laurel and later transferred to UMMC in Jackson.

“Christian has had to have two surgeries,” Kenneth said. “They had to repair his bladder, which had busted during (the accident), and they had to redo his pelvis cause it crushed on both sides, and then it broke in the front and back, so they had to put plates and screws in too.”

Kenneth said his son is, thankfully, doing a bit better and breathing on his own.

Meanwhile, Kenneth and his wife are staying in Jackson to be close to Christian, while his other two sons are staying with family to attend West Jones High School. Christian was also supposed to start at West Jones this fall.

“I’ve come back to work, and I’ll just be going back and forth during the weekends and staying up there,” Kenneth said.

A 911 dispatcher set up a GoFundMe account to help the family with medical expenses and the loss of their home.

Kenneth said he’s thankful for the dispatcher who created the account and is extremely grateful for everyone’s help, from first responders to family and neighbors.

“We’ve had people donate, and just the number of people who got a hold of us telling us they are praying for him and everything, it’s just, it’s humbling the way everybody has come together through all of this,” Kenneth said.

If you would like to help the Harvey’s, you can find the GoFundMe here.

Kenneth said he doesn’t know what caused the tree to fall, but according to an insurance adjuster, heat may have played a role.

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