The family of a 5-year-old boy is suing a day camp in south Fulton County for wrongful death after the boy was allowed to wander off and subsequently drowned.
According to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the young boy’s name was Benjamin ‘Kamau’ Hosch III, and he died while attending Camp Cricket last July when the group of campers spent the day at the Cochran Mill Nature Center in Palmetto. The AJC reports indicated that there were three counselors looking over 13 campers who were allowed to swim and enjoy some shallow water, but somehow Kamau was able to wander off from the counselors’ supervision and it took over half an hour for the counselors to find him once he was deemed missing.
The camp counselors found Kamau unresponsive and he died later at a local hospital. That was last summer, but about a month ago indictments were given to Terri Clark and Maribeth Wansley. Clark is the director of Camp Cricket, and he was indicted on a count of involuntary manslaughter as well as a misdemeanor reckless conduct charge. Wansley, who is the president of the board of directors for the Cochran Mill Nature Center, is now facing a misdemeanor count of operating an early childhood learning center without a license.
The Hosch family is seeking punitive damages and a trial through the DeKalb County state court, and the city of Chattahoochee Hills, the nature center, the property owners and the nature center employees are all named within the lawsuit.
The lawsuit states, “the failure to properly supervise Kamau proximately caused the catastrophic injuries sustained by Kamau and ultimately his death.”
This is a very interesting local wrongful death case that we’ll be following throughout the summer months, and it will be interesting to see how this lawsuit could affect the future of wrongful death cases throughout DeKalb County.
To access the full article and video from The Atlanta Journal-Constitution click here.
