A Detroit mother recently spoke out after two of her children died of apparent hypothermia while sleeping inside their van in a casino parking garage, prompting the city to look into why the family couldn’t get temporary housing to avoid this tragedy.
Tateona Williams sat down with local news outlets following the deaths of her 9-year-old son, Darnell Currie, Jr., and 2-year-old daughter, Amillah Currie.
The 29-year-old mother stated that she drove her van into the parking garage around 1 a.m. and parked it on the ninth floor. At some point, the van stopped running, leaving Williams, her four children, her mother, and her younger sibling to sleep in the vehicle in below-freezing temperatures.
The next morning, she tried waking Darnell for school but discovered he wasn’t breathing and was foaming at the mouth, according to police.
Williams, who works in the medical field, immediately began performing CPR.
“I tried to give him CPR and I was giving him CPR. I just kept saying ‘Fatty, don’t leave me. Don’t leave me, please,” Williams told WXYZ. “I see green stuff or brown stuff foaming out his mouth.”
During a press conference, Detroit police stated that Williams called up a friend to take Darnell to the hospital. As they were headed there, Williams’ mother called Williams and told her that Amillah had stopped breathing, as well.
Williams’ friend returned to the garage and rushed the toddler to the hospital where both children were pronounced dead.
A medical examiner has not determined an official cause of death, but authorities stated that “right now it appears it was exposure to hypothermia.”
Authorities learned the family last made contact with the city’s homeless response team on Nov. 25, 2024, and then previously in the summer of 2024 and in 2023. However, the family was never housed, even after reaching out to homeless services on Nov. 25.
“In the course of that conversation there was no resolution reached on where they would go,” Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan said. “And one of the things when you call our homeless services folks is that if it’s an emergency situation, we send out one of these outreach workers….For whatever reason, this wasn’t deemed an emergency that caused an outreach worker to visit the family.”
Williams’ family hadn’t reached out to the shelter since then, police said, and they have been homeless for the last three months.
Sleeping in the van was the last resort for Williams who tried contacting family members and the father of her children, but relatives and friends couldn’t provide the help she needed. She even tried reaching out to shelters in different states.
“I asked everybody for help. I called out of state, I called cities I didn’t know, I called cities people asked me to call. I even asked Detroit — I’ve been on CAM list for the longest,” Williams said. “Everybody now wants to help after I lost two kids? I’ve been asked for help.”
Duggan stated that family shelter beds were available the night Williams’ family stayed in the parking garage, adding that a drop-in center had recently opened on Dec. 16.
Now, he’s now calling for a review of Detroit’s homeless services to learn how they can better publicize when temporary housing is available to people experiencing homelessness, especially those who don’t have direct access to television or social media.
The mayor also reported that the city has already instituted a new policy that directs outreach workers to make mandatory site visits when they are contacted about homeless situations where minors are involved.
Even though the city is taking renewed action, Williams said their new policies and reviews came too little too late, and that they fell short in getting her family before the untimely passing of her two children.
“They’re going to say they don’t have beds. And then as soon as something like this happened, me losing two kids, all of a sudden they have beds. It don’t go like that,” Williams said. “Go to somebody you know that’s going to help you, because, in reality, this city, don’t get our back.”
Williams said her children died right before she was set to start a new job. A local funeral home is covering the funeral and burial costs.
“I’m dying inside. It hurts,” Williams added. “I feel like my heart is breaking, and I have two more kids to live for.”
Detroit Board of Police Commissioner Tamara Liberty Smith told People that Williams and her family have now been housed at Detroit Power Detroit Community Outreach, an independently-owned shelter.
