A wrongful death lawsuit filed Monday blames a 2015 murder-suicide in Varnell, Ga., on the after-school employee who released an 8-year-old child into the custody of his abusive father.
The employee knew Grayden Whitmore tried to commit suicide because of his father’s abuse, knew that Grayden and his mother had endured this domestic violence for months, and knew that Melissa Ball had moved out of the house because of it, the lawsuit states.
But hours before Eric Whitmore shot and killed his son, his wife, and then himself at a Shell gas station on April 23, 2015, the employee at Beaverdale Elementary School made a crucial decision, the lawsuit says: She released Grayden into the custody of his father, with whom she had recently been having a relationship, and didn’t tell anybody.
“Despite their prior knowledge of Eric Whitmore’s violent behavior toward Melissa and the child, despite their prior knowledge to not allow Eric to pick up the child, and despite their knowledge that Eric was armed on school grounds, defendants released the child to Eric,” attorney Robin Flores wrote in the lawsuit.
Flores is now suing the employee and the Boys & Girls Clubs of Gordon, Murray and Whitfield counties, which oversee the after-school program, saying their failures “were the direct and proximate cause of the deaths.” On behalf of Ball’s mother and sister, Flores wants compensatory damages for the value of lives lost and the costs of burial. He is also suing the Boys & Girls national organization, alleging it had a duty to protect the child.