On Monday, February 10, 2025, a 9-year-old boy and 2-year-old girl froze to death while their family slept in their car in Detroit. Now, their mother is speaking out about what led to their deaths. The mom has two other children who were also in the car, but they survived.
In the interview, the mom claims that she went through all the appropriate channels to get help for her family. Unfortunately, her family fell through the cracks in the system. As a result of the children’s deaths, the mayor of Detroit is calling for more to be done to get families the resources they need.
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Tateona Williams, 29, spoke candidly with Local 4 Detroit.
In their initial reporting Detroit police said that around noon, Williams noticed that her 9-year-old son wasn’t breathing and called a friend to take the boy to the hospital. In the process of that happening, Williams’ 2-year-old daughter also stopped breathing. The friend returned to the van, and took the girl to the hospital. Police also reported that Williams has five children, but she says she only has four.
Williams pulled into the parking lot of the Greektown Casino around 1 a.m. Sometime during the night, her car ran out of gas.
“I needed a boost. So they helped me with a boost, but it wouldn’t start. So I’m like, ‘Maybe it ran out of gas.’ How? I don’t know because I had a nice amount of gas in my car,” Williams said.
“I think when we kept it on, we might have fell asleep. Then, no, I don’t know. My baby. Nobody can understand how this feels. You know, everybody paints their own picture about me when I know everybody around me knows, OK, the kids, my last I didn’t have anything, but they had everything. I don’t have s—. They have everything. I got these shoes from the police officer, like, what do you want?” she continued.
The mom claims that she “called everybody” to get help. “I called different cities. I called Detroit. I got on Cam [Detroit]. I been on a Cam for a long time. Nobody, every time I called, it says no shelter, no bed. I thought I was doing the right thing. I tried to keep them warm at night. That’s it.”
Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan got involved after the kids’ deaths and is currently investigating the situation. According to Duggan, Williams called the city’s homeless response team on November 25, 2024. She had also called in the summer, and the previous year. Williams explained that she and her children were staying with family, but they could no longer stay there.
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There was no resolution reached during the call. Duggan said that Williams never called back, and the team never followed up with her either.
“I was just trying to keep them warm. Nobody helped me. It took me to lose two of my kids to get this help. I don’t feel good about it. It’s just that I want them back, and I know I can’t get them back, but I asked,” she said.
“Everybody knew my situation. Their dad, their family, everybody knew I kept asking, ‘Can you get them? Can you get them a week? Can you get them this day? Can you get him the weekend?’” she continued. “Everybody knew my situation. Now, everybody wants to come out of the woodwork and help. Where was you at before I lost my two kids?” she wondered.
Duggan claimed that there was an open shelter with available beds not far from where Williams had parked her van. He also acknowledged that the city needs to be better about communicating this to the people who need help. Due to the severity of Williams’ situation, he is now calling for new policies.
But in Williams’ mind, these policies are too little, too late. “I want people to know that if you can’t get help from the city, find somebody you can get help from. You have to look yourself. You cannot depend on Detroit,” she said.
