(Photo by Jay L. Clendenin/Getty Images)
Two children recently froze to death in a vehicle outside of a Detroit casino. According to the Associated Press, local police confirmed the kids had been living in the vehicle with their family and moving around when possible.
For context, a 9-year-old boy and a 2-year-old girl died from cold exposure. Three more children (up to 13 years old) and two adults, including their 29-year-old mother, lived inside the vehicle, too.
NBC News reports that on Monday at around 1 a.m., the mother, Tateona Williams, parked her van on the 9th floor of the Hollywood Casino’s parking garage. At some point, the vehicle ran out of gas amid below-freezing temperatures, meaning it was reportedly about 12 degrees early Monday. When Tateona realized her 9-year-old wasn’t breathing, she called 911, then a loved one for help, who then came to take the boy to Children’s Hospital. While her son was en route with her person to the hospital, the mom checked her other kids in the van. When she noticed the 2-year-old wasn’t breathing, she called the loved to return for the girl, too. According to video footage, the entire family got into the loved one’s car, a Buick, after that.
Interim Police Chief Todd Bettison said the family had been living out of the vehicle for two to three months and sometimes chose to park at casinos for safety and access to restrooms.
Tateona Williamscontacted City Hall on November 25, seeking help with housing. However, 24 hours after the recent deaths, Mayor Mike Duggan revealed that the housing issue was never resolved. Additionally, the mayor seemed to indicate a lack of communication on both ends.
“For whatever reason, this wasn’t deemed an emergency that caused an outreach worker to visit the family. … As far as we’ve been able to determine so far, the family never called back again for service,” Duggan said. “And as far as we’ve been able to tell, our homeless staff never proactively reached out to say, ‘What happened with your situation? Was it resolved?'”
At the press conference, Mayor Duggan revealed that a family shelter with available beds was “just a few miles away” from the casino. He also assured Detroit residents that the city has 1,400 open beds and a helpline for people seeking shelter.
“The shortest way for somebody in an emergency is go to a police precinct. They will navigate the process and get you to a shelter,” Mayor Duggan said.
In a televised interview, Tateona Williams shed tears as she explained that she lost her firstborn and her youngest.
“I’m dying inside, it hurt. It feel like my heart is breaking and I have two more kids to live for,” Williams said. “And I regret having to sleep out there so bad. I tell them I’m sorry, but I tried.”
The 29-year-old mom said she tried to keep hotel rooms and pay others to stay, but it didn’t work. Speaking about her two-year-old, Tateona sobbed about her little girl not getting a chance to live life. “She died because I had to sleep in a car,” the mom said in between cries.
In response to the incident, Duggan gave his staff two weeks to review the family’s contact history with the city. “It’s a terrible day in Detroit,” the mayor said.
In the meantime, the other three children are staying with relatives, Detroit police captain Nathan Duda said.
Associated Press reporter Ed White contributed to this report.
