Two Georgia basketball coaches have been charged with murder in the death of a 16-year-old girl who died following an outdoor practice in extreme heat.
A Clayton County grand jury recently returned an indictment charging Larosa Maria Walker-Asekere and Dwight Broom Palmer with second-degree murder, second-degree child cruelty, involuntary manslaughter and reckless conduct.
The charges are in connection to the August 2019 death of Imani Bell, an Elite Scholars Academy student who died after members of the girls’ basketball team practiced outdoors in temperatures that reached the high 90s.
Walker-Asekere was the head basketball coach and Palmer was an assistant, according to the family’s attorney Justin Miller. Both were at the practice and had been in charge of the children, he told The Associated Press.
At a press conference on Wednesday, the family and attorneys thanked the district attorney for bringing charges.
“The incident in question did not have to happen,” Miller said.
Court documents do not list attorneys for Palmer or Walker-Asekere and they could not be reached at phone numbers listed for them.
In February, Bell’s family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against school administrators and said the team was doing a conditioning drill when Bell collapsed after running up the football stadium steps. The heat index that day for the Jonesboro area, where the school is located, was between 106 to 108 degrees. Jonesboro is about 20 miles south of downtown Atlanta.
Bell was taken to the hospital and died of heat-related cardiac arrest and kidney failure, the suit states. The lawsuit remains ongoing.
Chris Stewart, another attorney for the family, said at a February press conference that there was a heat advisory the day practice was held. The weather forecast had put out a warning that outdoor activities should be limited due to the heat, he told reporters.
“We are every day learning to live with the loss of our daughter,” the girl’s mother, Dorian Bell, said at the press conference. “Realizing that this is nothing that will ever go away, that it will always be here, a piece of me is missing, but we’re learning to live. … We just want closure in this whole situation.”
Bell’s father said basketball was just one of his daughter’s loves.
“She was in love with life. She was in love with education and just musically oriented. She had an open mind for any and everything,” Eric Bell said.
It’s not clear if the coaches are still employed at Elite Scholars Academy. The district, Clayton County Public Schools, did not respond Wednesday to a request for an update on their employment status.
When asked for a comment on the lawsuit and charges, a district spokesperson said “the school system does not comment on personnel matters or pending/ongoing litigation” due to school practices and protocols.
The Associated Press and Daniela Mencos contributed.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
