The City of Arlington has settled a lawsuit filed by the family of a little boy who died after contracting a brain-eating amoeba at a city splash pad.
The City Council unanimously approved the settlement with Tariq Williams and Kayla Mitchell, whose three-year-old son, Bakari Williams, contracted the Naegleria fowleri amoeba while playing in a splash pad at Don Misenhimer Park last September.
At the time, the city acknowledged that park maintenance staffers failed to record water test readings for Misenhimer Park.
The city will pay the couple $250,000, and it will implement what it's calling "The Bakari Williams Protocol."
Part of the protocol involves giving parents the ability to check the water quality at pools and splash pads in real time.
"Any family can simply take their cell phone, scan that QR code and be assured that the quality of the water has been tested and approved," says Brian Hargrove, one of the couple's attorneys.
"The City of Arlington, as part of its settlement with the Williams child's family, is making a significant investment in the installation of health and safety equipment and other improvements for our public pools and splash pads," the city said in a statement released to KRLD news. "This includes technology that will automatically shut off any splash pads where water readings are not in the acceptable ranges and the addition of QR codes that will allow visitors to see real-time information about water quality."
While the amount in the settlement is less than the more than $1 million the couple had sought, Hargrove says the lawsuit was about more than money.
"This was about making sure that another family doesn't have to go through what they're going through and will continue to go through for the rest of their lives," says Hargrove.
Bakari's parents and their attorneys will discuss the settlement in a news conference in Fort Worth at 1:00 p.m. Thursday afternoon.
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