The family of a Fulton County detainee who died last year at the troubled jail announced their intention to sue the county and sheriff Patrick Labat for his death.
“We are filing today a presentation of claim against the Fulton County Sheriff and Fulton County for Dino Walker’s death,” attorney Harold Spence said during a press conference announcing the intention to sue.
Credit: Contributed
Credit: Contributed
Dino Walker was stabbed and killed at the jail on Sept. 22, 2022. Walker had been arrested in December 2020 on aggravated assault charges. He had no bond but was indicted on July 2021. However, no trial date had been set before his death.
Attorney Mawuli Davis, who also represents the family of Shawndre Delmore, said it was an unfortunate situation that they had to represent the family of another death at the jail but wants to make sure Walker is remembered.
“Dino Walker was a son and a father and a friend. We want to humanize Mr. Walker because, so often, what we know happens is that our brothers and sisters who are incarcerated before they are convicted, they are reduced, they are dehumanized, they are criminalized,” Davis said.
Davis said Labat and the sheriff’s office administration and jailers are responsible for Walker’s death.
“They were on notice of the dangers. Not only did they not do what was necessary to protect his life, they in-fact increased the likelihood of his death by walking off the floor and leaving him susceptible to this level of violence,” he said.
Credit: Jason.Getz@ajc.com
Credit: Jason.Getz@ajc.com
The Atlanta Journal Constitution reached out to the sheriff’s office for a response but did not hear back by press time.
Spence described what happened inside the jail the day Walker died based on a report from the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office. In the report, it is alleged that the deputy assigned to the section of the jail designated as 7North, left his post leaving inmates in the section of the jail unattended. Spence said that section of the jail generally contains some of the most violent inmates.
Credit: Jason.Getz@ajc.com
Credit: Jason.Getz@ajc.com
While the jailer was gone, Spence said Walker was stabbed in the back and fell to the floor before he died.
“Violence had become so normalized at the Fulton County Jail that other inmates simply walked around him, stepping over him, looking at him as some sort of oddity without providing any assistance whatsoever,” he said.
Davis and Spence were accompanied by Walker’s mother, Chandra Toland; Walker’s partner and mother of his son, Quenteesha Parker, and Walker’s son, D’claire. Local activists were also present. Angela Roper, the mother of Christopher Roper who died at the jail in 2022 from a fentanyl overdose, spoke in support of Toland and Walker.
“Her pain, I feel it. I know it and I want her to know that she is not alone with all this suffering,” Roper said.
Roper thought her son, who was arrested in August 2021 and died on March 2022, was safer inside the jail than out on the street. She questioned Labat on how her son could have died in his custody.
Credit: Jason.Getz@ajc.com
Credit: Jason.Getz@ajc.com
This year, 10 people have died at the Fulton County Jail. Between 2009 and October 2022, more than 60 Fulton inmates died, the highest total for any jail in Georgia during that time, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution found. Eight inmates in the custody of the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office have died this year.
The jail is currently being investigated by the U.S. Justice Department following the death of Lashawn Thompson, whose body was found covered in insects. His cause of death was undetermined, according to a Fulton County Medical Examiner’s report that noted a severe insect infestation. Thompson died a week before Walker died at the jail.
Fulton County recently approved a $4 million settlement in the Thompson case. According to the presentation of claim, Walker’s family is seeking $5 million for damages, including damages for the full value of Walker’s life, for physical pain and suffering, pre-death mental pain and suffering. The claim also alleges negligence, deliberate indifference and medical neglect by the sheriff’s office and county in Walker’s death.
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