The family of a Fulton County Jail inmate who was stabbed to death last year after a supervising detention officer deserted his post announced they plan to sue the county in the wake of a startling number of deaths and outbreaks of violence at the jail over the last year.
Dino Walker was brutally stabbed and killed by two other inmates in a savage attack on Sept. 22, 2022.
The family alleges Walker was attacked after Detention Officer Curt Muhammad abandoned his post on the seventh floor of the jail for nearly an hour, leaving several inmates unattended.
With no supervision to protect Walker or get him any immediate medical aid, Walker was left stranded and dying in a pool of his own blood while other inmates around him carried on with their daily activities.
Now, Walker’s family has acquired legal representation from the Davis Bozeman Johnson Law Firm. An attorney for the firm reported that in March 2023, more than 200 homemade knives were discovered in just a third of the housing zones in the jail.
Additionally, by that month, 78 stabbings had taken place. So far this year, 10 people at the jail have died, including Walker. In a mere five-week span over the summer, six of those deaths were recorded.
In August, one detainee, 23-year-old Dayvion Blake, was killed, and four other inmates were wounded in a mass stabbing. That same month, four other people died, including one inmate named Samuel Lawrence, who was found unresponsive in his cell and died just days after he filed a civil rights lawsuit against the facility.
In that 16-page handwritten complaint, Samuel wrote of incidents involving deputies using excessive force, kicking him while he was handcuffed, using pepper spray on him, and using a Taser on his chest while he was in a medical bed.
Walker was in jail awaiting trial after being charged with aggravated assault. He hadn’t bonded out but never had the opportunity to be tried for the offense before being murdered. His family is giving the county 30 days to address Walker’s death and the hazardous environment at the jail before filing their lawsuit.
According to local news reports, the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office has yet to respond to the family’s intent to sue. Walker’s family held a press conference Thursday morning accompanied by their lawyers to address their plans.
11Alive reported that lawyers Mawuli Davis and Harold Spence said that the charge against Walker should “not become an indictment” into his character.
“Being a pretrial detainee, not yet convicted of any offense, should not consign an inmate to death or severe injury by knifing. Lives, like Dino Walker’s, are at stake. Fulton County must do better!” attorney Harold Spence said in a statement.
Fulton County Sheriff Patrick “Pat” Labat had previously released a statement attributing the outbreak of violence over the summer at the jail “is of grave concern but unfortunately is not surprising considering the long-standing, dangerous overcrowding and the crumbling walls of the facility that are literally being crafted into makeshift weapons that inmates use to attack each other and staff.”
The Justice Department launched a civil rights investigation into the jail in July to investigate dilapidated and unsanitary conditions, as well as violence against detainees after the death of LaShawn Thompson, whose body was found covered in bed bugs and insects last year in the same month Walker was killed.
City officials say overcrowding at the jail contributes to the inhumane conditions. Fulton County Commission Chair Rob Pitts has tapped the Atlanta City Council for help to remedy those conditions.
