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Julian Spencer was adept at climbing trees as a young boy in his native Jamaica.
So when the 49-year-old Dolton man bet a buddy he could scale the tree in front of another friend's Englewood home Monday night, he thought he made an easy $20.
Instead, Spencer tumbled 15 feet to his death when a branch he crawled up to broke during his quest to prove he still had what it takes, police said. He died at Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn from head injuries, the Cook County medical examiner's office said.
Spencer wasn't drinking alcohol -- just water -- when he scaled the tree, taking off his shoes and handing his wallet to Lawrence Williams, who lives in the basement of a home near the tree, friends said.
"It was one of those freak accidents," said 62-year-old Williams, also a Jamaican immigrant. "Why couldn't he just break his arm or leg?"
Spencer crashed head first to the pavement, Williams said Tuesday afternoon, glancing up at the tree in the 6400 block of South Racine. "Someone said, 'Why couldn't you catch him?' But we couldn't. It happened so fast," he said.
Spencer worked as a truck driver and lived with his parents in the 14400 block of Ingleside Avenue in Dolton, according to an in-law, Patricia Marshall.
The father of three often came to play dominoes with Williams and several other friends in the backyard of Williams' home. He didn't play Monday night, opting instead to joke around and come up with dares, Williams said.
"I never saw anything like it in my life," Williams said of the fatal accident.
http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/91581,CST-NWS-tree11.article
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