Belleville man killed after storm ‘a brother’ to coworkers

The St. Clair County Coroner’s Office on Thursday released the identity of the man who was killed when he made contact with a fence charged by a live power line following Wednesday afternoon’s severe storm.

Jeremy Birch, 36, lived in Belleville with his long-time partner and their two children, according to Amanda Zimmerman, one of the owners of A & E Truck Center, where Birch worked.

According to Deputy Coroner Tom Boyd, Birch was removing a fallen limb from the fence when he made contact with the fence. Birch did not know a live, fallen power line also was touching the fence.

A & E is a small shop. With just three guys — two mechanics and Birch, an industrious and upbeat handyman — the business was a close-knit family, Zimmerman said.

Birch joined A & E just two months ago after a long career as a waiter at 54th Street Grill & Bar in Shiloh.

Birch took pride in his work, asking about what classes he should take to learn more about the business, and just a few nights ago, Zimmerman’s husband, Eric, was just talking about how enthusiastic and ambitious he was. There was a future for him at the shop, she said.

But on Thursday, A & E was “mourning the loss of a brother.”

Birch was a quiet person, always observing the world around him and making others laugh, and there was “not a rough bone in his body,” Zimmerman said.

She had met him through his long-time partner, Shanna Barnard, who is one of her best friends. They go out once a week for breakfast with another friend, often to Eckert’s or to Our Lady of the Snows.

Barnard, Zimmerman said, “hung the stars in his eyes,” and his face would light up whenever he spoke about her. They had been together so long, 10 years or more, that it was hard for Zimmerman to remember when they had gotten together.

The couple had raised their kids well, she said, and their kids were friends with her own. At a recent outing at a lake, they had even showed Zimmerman’s kids, who are a few years younger, how to fish.

She said she always looked forward to get-togethers where she knew he would be because she would have a good time.

“You could not have a bad day around him,” Zimmerman said.

A friend told her about Birch, but she didn’t believe it at first.

She said that Jeremy had just sent her a picture of the tree that he was about to move, so she called Shanna to check.

Shanna didn’t pick up at first, so Zimmerman called her back a few times. When she answered, she said he was gone.

This story was originally published July 14, 2016 at 8:22 PM with the headline "Belleville man killed after storm ‘a brother’ to coworkers."