The estate of Dino Waker, a pre-trial detainee murdered at the Fulton County Jail, has filed a lawsuit in federal court against a detention officer, Sheriff Pat Labat, and the county.
The complaint was made by Tamarra E. Stuppard-Wilson, the administrator of Walker’s estate, in the U.S. District Court Northern District of Georgia, Atlanta Division. The complaint claims that the defendants were deliberately indifferent to a known risk of serious harm to Walker.
According to the complaint, Detention Officer Curt Muhammad left Walker unsupervised in a high-risk area of the jail for approximately one hour where he was stabbed and killed on Sept. 22, 2022.
Spokespersons for Fulton County and the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office said they do not comment on matters of pending litigation.
Walker was fatally stabbed with a makeshift knife or shank by another detainee. Those shanks have been a well-known problem at the jail that have resulted in violent attacks, severe injuries, and deaths, the complaint said.
The complaint cited a sweep on April 20, 2022, of the jail that discovered close to 100 knives or shanks. A search of one-third of the jail’s housing zones in March 2023 found more than 200 knives and shanks. By that time, 78 stabbings had been recorded in the Fulton County Jail in 2023.
Approximately 293 stabbings, 337 fights, 992 assaults, and more than 1,186 confiscated knives and shanks were recorded in the first 10 months of 2023, the complaint said.
The complaint cited tours and presentations Labat has made to the Fulton County Commission about the jail’s deteriorating condition that enables detainees to make shanks and knives.
According to the complaint, more than 60 people who were held in the Fulton County Jail died between 2009 and October 2022 as revealed in an investigation by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The U.S. Department of Justice launched an investigation into jail conditions in July 2023.
“The level of violence is deeply concerning, with reports of one stabbing per day,” Kristen Clarke, assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division, said in a press conference, noting there were three homicides reported inside the jail in 2022. “Last year, 200 weapons were recovered, and inmates are crafting shanks from the crumbling walls of the jail.”
The Georgia State Senate launched an investigation into the jail on Oct. 5, 2023, citing 10 deaths since the start of the year.
The lawsuit also references the Fulton County Commission ending the inmate welfare fund in November 2023.
“Instead of spending the funds allocated for matters pertaining to inmate welfare, the Sheriff’s Office spent the money on a host of matters unrelated to inmate welfare,” the complaint said.
The spending included a leadership retreat, lighting for emergency vehicles, more than $1.3 million on vehicles, photography and video for events, Italian ice cream catering, a bounce house, DJs, face painting, and luncheons.
The Fulton County ordinance that created the Inmate Welfare Fund said its purpose was for the welfare of persons committed to the jail, the complaint said.
The plaintiff seeks compensation for Walker’s death, pain, and suffering, for punitive damages, and for funeral/burial, medical, and other expenses.
Harold Spence of Davis Bozeman Law Firm and Cary Wiggins of Wiggins Law Group are representing the plaintiff in the lawsuit.
