DeKalb Mom Sues Apartment Complex After Her Daughter Drowned

DEKALB COUNTY, GA — A DeKalb County mother filed a wrongful death lawsuit against her former apartment complex nearly two years after her 6-year-old daughter drowned in a creek near their home, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.

Raylithia Hooten sued Mercy Housing Inc. and some of its subsidiaries over the death of her daughter, Damaria, when she drowned near The Hills at Fairington Apartments in January 2019. According to the AJC, Damaria was playing with her brother and other kids near Pole Bridge Creek when she fell into the water from a tree branch.

Raylithia Hooten and her kids lived at the apartment complex, but she never knew about the creek, the mother's attorney told the AJC. Damaria was on a tree branch when it broke, causing her to fall into the water, which was about six feet deep.

“The primary goal of the lawsuit is to get the apartment complex to put a fence up or do something,” attorney Arthur York, who represents Raylithia Hooten, told the AJC. “(They should) put up some form of reasonable deterrent to prevent this from ever happening again.”

The lawsuit asks for a jury to reward compensation for Damaria's death, per-death pain, medical expenses and funder expenses, the AJC reported.

View the full story at the AJC's website.