Family files lawsuit over homeless man’s death

The family of a homeless man killed during a city-led clearing of a homeless encampment in January filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the City of Atlanta on Friday.

Cornelius Taylor, 46, was crushed by a Department of Public Works front loader on Jan. 16 while inside his tent on Old Wheat Street near The King Center and Ebenezer Baptist Church.

According to internal city emails cited in the lawsuit, an “emergency” cleanup request was made so that visiting dignitaries and the media wouldn’t see the encampment during Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday events.

The lawsuit, filed in Fulton County Superior Court by Taylor’s cousin Darlene Chaney and son Justin Taylor Garrett, accuses the city of failing its “ministerial duty” by not checking if anyone was inside the tent before moving heavy equipment. It seeks unspecified punitive damages and alleges both negligence and premises liability, according to a report from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

“If someone had taken 10 seconds to look inside, this tragedy could have been avoided,” said attorney Harold Spence at a Friday news conference at the Davis Bozeman Johnson Law office in Decatur.

An autopsy by the Fulton County medical examiner found Taylor died from blunt force trauma consistent with being struck by construction machinery. While an initial police report suggested a possible overdose, family attorneys criticized it for downplaying the incident.

The incident sparked outrage and led to the formation of the Justice for Cornelius Taylor Coalition, which has since worked with the city to relocate unhoused residents.

In June, a Homelessness Needs Task Force appointed by Mayor Andre Dickens in the wake of Taylor’s death made a series of recommendations, including the establishment of a new centralized office that will “lead the city’s homelessness strategy.”