"5 Charged With Involuntary Manslaughter in Flint Water Crisis"

"FLINT, Mich. — By the time Robert Skidmore, an 85-year-old former auto industry worker, died in late 2015, officials had seen signs for months that Flint was wrestling with outbreaks of Legionnaires’ disease, prosecutors say. Yet despite a wave of such cases in 2014 and 2015, no public warning was issued until early 2016.

By then, it was too late for Mr. Skidmore and 11 others: a failing so egregious, prosecutors say, that it amounted to involuntary manslaughter.

Five officials in Michigan, including the head of the state’s health department, were charged on Wednesday. It is the closest investigators have come to directly blaming officials for the deaths and illnesses that occurred when a water contamination crisis enveloped this city."

Scott Atkinson and Monica Davey report for the New York Times June 14, 2017.

SEE ALSO:

"Michigan Health Director Nick Lyon, 4 Others Face Involuntary Manslaughter Charge Over Flint Water" (Detroit Free Press)