Genesee County Prosecutor David S. Leyton has requested that Michigan State Police launch a new probe into the circumstances surrounding the deaths of two Black boys in a house fire in Flint, spokesperson John Potbury confirmed to The Daily Beast.
Twelve-year-old Zy’Aire Mitchell and nine-year-old LaMar Mitchell died in May after an incident the local fire department chief said involved two white firefighters missing the boys—and then later lying about it on reports.
“Because it was a City of Flint Fire Department matter, we felt it appropriate that the state police investigate,” Potbury told The Daily Beast on Friday. After this story was published, a spokesperson for Michigan State Police indicated that the agency had received a request to investigate.
ADVERTISEMENT
Firefighters Sergeant Daniel Sniegocki and Michael Zlotek were tasked with searching the room the boys had been sleeping in on the second floor of a home on Pulaski street. The two firefighters called an all-clear for the rooms in which the boys still lay.
It wasn’t until six minutes later that another team of firefighters looking to vent the room found the boys and rushed them to safety—only for them to perish days later.
Sniegocki and Zlotek would later report to the chief that they had properly canvassed the room, but an investigation by Barton concluded that their statement was a lie, as The Daily Beast previously reported.
Neither man was fired or criminally charged—though Sniegocki resigned—sparking outrage in the community, and allegations of a cover-up by the administration of Mayor Sheldon Neeley, a Democrat up for re-election next week.
A spokesperson for the union representing the firefighters did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
On Friday morning, Crystal Cooper—the boys’ mother—stood with supporters demanding justice in their first official press conference since the death of her children six months ago.
She and her new legal team, headed by Robert Kenner Jr. and former water-crisis lawyer Todd Flood, said that they would soon amend an initial lawsuit on the case—and had hired a slew of experts in house fires and deaths by smoke.
“Every doctor that I’ve spoken with, every medical expert that I’ve spoken with, says that a minute can mean the difference between life and death with smoke inhalation,” Flood said.
It was at least the third time in the past month that Cooper had spoken out. The mother of three spoke publicly at the end of an explosive, hours-long meeting of the Flint City Council on Oct. 19. The Council was expected to revisit the saga in a meeting on Friday.
Cooper also described her pain in a previous interview with The Daily Beast.
“Nothing’s going to make me feel better,” she said last week. “But at least getting justice for my children can be a start.”
During questioning by council members on Oct. 19, Fire Chief Barton suggested that the had been overridden in his wishes to terminate the firefighters “through advisement” from city attorney William Kim, City Administrator Clyde Edwards, and Human Resources director Eddie Smith.
As to how the decision played out among his rank and file in the fire department:
“Let’s say it for what it is—it split the department,” Barton told Council Member Dennis Pfeiffer.
That same night, and later in interviews with The Daily Beast, Council Members Tonya Burns and Eric Mays accused Mayor Neeley of being the only person capable of overriding the head of the fire department. His administration has flatly denied any kind of cover-up, even as he braces for a tough re-election fight next week with former Mayor Karen Weaver.
“At no point did undue influence by Mayor Neeley or any other elected official affect the outcome of the investigation or the discipline imposed. Due to ongoing litigation and a labor grievance related to this incident, the City cannot comment further,” read a statement shared by a spokesperson for the City of Flint last week.
At the October meeting, council members drilled city officials from the fire to Human Resources departments and beyond on what happened in the ensuing weeks after the fire—before voting for an independent investigation into the matter.
“There’s only one person who can say I don’t want them terminated,” Burns told The Daily Beast last week, alluding to Mayor Neeley.
On Friday, a special session of the Flint City Council was set to dig further into the incident and to discuss the council’s October vote.
Shantel Clemons, the boys’ aunt, told The Daily Beast she wanted one thing to come of their family’s cries for justice now and in the days ahead: accountability.
“Don't let my sister’s and daddy’s tears and our family tears be for nothing. We got to go on the rest of our lives living without Zy’Aire and LaMar,” Clemons said.
Describing herself as a past supporter of Neeley’s, the grieving aunt did not hold back.
“If the mayor covered it up, he no longer should be able to serve the public, because now we have to question your judgment,” she said, adding, “This is bigger than a campaign or election—we are the people; you are here to serve the people.”
A spokesperson for Mayor Neeley did not respond to requests for comment for this story.
