Family takes legal action against camp owners after 8-year-old killed by fallen tree branch

SANTA MONICA MOUNTAINS, Calif. (Gray News) – The family of an 8-year-old boy who was killed by a fallen tree branch in the Santa Monica Mountains filed a legal claim alleging negligence against the owners and operators of King Gillette Ranch.

Lamar Matthew McGlothurn was attending Camp Wildcraft on July 9 when a branch from a decaying tree fell onto a picnic table he was sitting at.

Attorney Robert Glassman with Panish Law, who is representing the 8-year-old’s family, said McGlothurn’s parents watched as the 100-pound tree branch fell onto their son.

“This tree branch crushed Lamar to death in front of his mom and dad,” he said. “They were trying to lift it off of him, but because it was so heavy, they couldn’t, and they just had to sit there helplessly and watch their beautiful boy die in front of them.”

Glassman said the ranch is responsible for inspecting its grounds for safety hazards, especially if it hosts events where there are children at play.

“This wasn’t some unforeseeable act of nature, it wasn’t an act of God,” he said. “This was a preventable tragedy.”

Glassman said there was evidence before the day Lamar lost his life that the tree was in shambles and needed to be removed from the campsite.

According to Glassman, a large branch had snapped off the same tree just a week earlier on July 2, leading to a request for a tree company to take care of the issue.

Just one day later, a Mountains Recreation & Conservation Authority official then reportedly acknowledged the “massive branch” that had cracked and thanked staff that “no one was seriously hurt or killed.”

On the same day, a text from an employee of Gomez Landscape & Tree Care employee noted “all the decay at the trunk” before recommending thinning the tree’s canopy to “mitigate the risk.”

Glassman said Lamar then paid the ultimate price for the owners’ “indifference and inaction” just six days later when the large branch fatally fell on top of him.

“We’re now fighting to make sure these entities start taking dangerous conditions in public parks and campsites seriously before ever allowing children anywhere near them again,” he said.

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