Arlington City Council approves settlement for parents of child who died from 'brain-eating amoeba' at splash pad
ARLINGTON, Texas (CBSDFW.COM) - The Arlington City Council voted to authorize the execution of a settlement agreement for the parents of Bakari Williams, 3, who died last year after contracting a deadly amoeba infection from a city splash park.
Six months ago, Williams' parents filed a lawsuit after receiving the worst news of their life.
"The last thing that we want is for anyone else and their family to have to feel and go through what we're going through at this time," Tariq Williams said.
After visiting his favorite splash pad at Don Misenhimer Park, Bakari Williams fell ill. He was diagnosed with an infection caused by a brain eating amoeba and died.
"Bakari was a loving, energetic, passionate, sweet, beautiful, innocent boy," Tariq Williams said. "He didn't deserve to die in this manner."
Last October his parents filed a lawsuit seeking $1 million in damages, claiming the City of Arlington was negligent by failing to properly monitor and chlorinate the water.
The settlement authorized at Tuesday's meeting includes:
- A payment of $250,000 to Williams' parents
- Adding the latest the technology to treat water at all aquatic facilities
- Posting QR codes at each aquatic location so people can access the latest information on testing
- Distributing a new policy manual titled "The Bakari Williams Protocol" that will guide staff on treatment protocols
"We plan on developing a white paper that talks about the lessons learned through the process and we're prepared to present this information to various conferences within the parks and recreation industry that others can learn from our lesson," Deputy City Manager Lemuel Randolph said.
City officials said they're confident all the changes will prevent a similar incident from ever happening again in Arlington.
Williams' parents were not in attendance Tuesday night, but their attorney said they will be speaking publicly later this week.
