Featured photo Richert Manor is the 12 story building which King Messiah Anthony Davis fell from the 9th floor of before his tragic death.
Written by Tanya Terry, with photo by Tanya Terry
The funeral for King Messiah Anthony Davis is being held at 11 a.m. Tuesday, July 2, with a 10:30 a.m. family hour at No Greater Faith Missionary Baptist Church, 778 E. Holbrook Ave., Flint, MI 48505. At this time, emotions are still high and many questions yet unanswered.
King Anthony Messiah Davis fell from a nine-story window at Richert Manor.
One long-time resident of Richert Manor told the Courier the apartment in which 3-year-old Davis lived was a “wreck.”
“I know when I moved in my screens were really bad, and it took forever to get them corrected,” the resident said.
The resident said the current manager knew “every solitary tenant and thing that goes on in the building.” Although the resident said she felt the current manager was one of the best ones that has managed the property in years, she has been allowing things to take place that should not probably be taking place, according to the resident.
“All in all, there have been some really bad managers here,” she said. “She’s one of the better ones, as far as dealing with all these tenants with all these personalities. I would say, all in all, this is difficult to deal with – all these personalities. That being said, she still knows every single solitary thing that’s going on. She sits with the door open in her office, and she sees everybody coming and going. Then, she comes in in the morning and she reviews the security tapes for a good two, three hours every day. So, she knows everything that goes in in the building.”
The resident continued: “That baby falling has absolutely affected me to my core. Today is the first day that I can talk about it without crying.”
The resident explained to the Courier she had only seen young King Davis a couple of times and “didn’t really know them.” She had talked with Cory Davis, King Davis’ father, before – but had not seen the child’s mother much.
“I haven’t been able to eat. A baby lunging to its death, its so sad! It’s heartbreaking.”
The resident told the Courier her understanding was Davis’ brother, 5-year-old Cory Davis Jr. was in the apartment with King Davis when he fell. Although the 5-year-old child doesn’t seem to know what happened to his brother he has been “emotional.”
“How a 3-year-old Davis came out of the ninth floor is beyond me, whether the screen was broken or not. I can’t get that one through my mind.”
“Last night, it was chaos out here, with people fighting. They wanted the mother arrested. It was chaos, and there’s a lot of chaos out here. A lot. I just try to stay to myself….I also find it hard to believe a 3-year-old baby pushed the screen out to his death.”
The Courier was notified the Davis family had hired an attorney the day after the tragedy. Upon looking into it further, the Courier verified the Marko Law Firm is to be working on the case.
Bethany Dimmig, director of asset management for the Flint Housing Commission, told the Courier that because everybody was very upset by the tragedy and reacting in different ways, grief counseling for anyone that wanted it and a “residents services coordinator” was available.
“For this particular instance, we did have somebody there all day from Genesee Health System, and also our resident service coordinator was there for anybody that needed to make an appointment for a different time,” Dimmig said. “But we always have somebody available for our residents’ mental health situations. That is our resident services coordinator’s job.”
Dimmig was not at the property when 3-year-old Davis had his tragic fall.
“I was there about 15, 20 minutes afterward,” said Dimmig. “I was notified immediately. The manager called me and told me what had happened: that a 3-year-old child had fallen from a nine-story window.”
When Dimmig arrived, Kings’ mother and father were already gone with their child and the police were there doing an investigation.
“I don’t think the State Police were there at that time, but they did come later. They did not discuss anything with us. They said it was an ongoing investigation, and they would let us know when the investigation was over.”
Dimmig told the Courier it was a “horrible thing that happened.”
“We were all affected by it. However, we don’t know what happened. We haven’t heard anything from the police. The prosecutors were on TV the other night, and he even said it’s an ongoing investigation – and no determination has been made.”
Dimmig told the Courier inspections are held at the complex regularly.
“The last inspection that we had was on the days of June 10 and 11, and there were no window deficiencies once so ever, in the whole building.”
The Courier was told a private inspection of the unit which young Davis fell from was conducted on June 27, and the publication was waiting to receive official information on inspections at press time.
Dimmig told the Courier all tenants moving into the property with a lease are required to have the same credit checks and background checks as all HUD properties require.
Dimmig also said to restrict families with young children from being on higher floors within the unit would be a fair housing violation. She said: “there was absolutely nothing wrong at our end. There is nothing we need to change. The windows lock. The screens lock. We have our inspections regularly. These are HUD inspections, not inspections we do ourselves. So, it’s a third party. There were no violations for the windows at all, in the whole building. They come randomly. We get somebody assigned different every year.”
“Our heartfelt sympathy is with the family and with this young child that was lost. It’s a tragedy that shouldn’t happen to anybody. But we at the Flint Housing Commission take the safety of our residents very seriously…We’re waiting with everyone else to find out what the police investigation determines.”
