A fire chief said heads should roll over a tragedy. Then things got messy.
In late May, 12-year-old Zyaire Mitchell and 9-year-old Lamar Mitchell died after briefly surviving a fire at their home in Flint, Michigan. The two Black boys were eventually discovered inside a second-floor room—in a house that was just a three-minute walk from the local fire station.
But while Chief Raymond Barton made the determination to fire the firefighters, neither was ultimately dismissed. Instead, Sniegocki resigned—and Zlotek was allowed to return to work after completing a course in search and rescue. “At no point did undue influence by Mayor Neeley or any other elected official affect the outcome of the investigation or the discipline imposed,” she wrote.
After an investigation, the Chief found that “Sergeant Sniegocki and Firefighter Michael Zlotek have knowingly made false reports in their Incident Write-ups,” and that they “neglected to perform the tasks of completing a sweep of the second floor.”Firefighters are trained to save lives. They are trained to look for people who may have passed out from smoke inhalation or are trapped in the fire. This didn’t happen with my sons.The fire chief did not respond to requests for comment.
While he was in Arkansas for a family funeral, Barton said, he “received a call from director [of] HR Eddie Smith” who relayed that the suspension without pay had been changed to suspension with pay. This, Smith later stated to the council, was due to a verbal directive from City Attorney William Kim.
In the August press release issued by the city that publicly announced the decision to let Zlotek back on board, Mayor Neeley and Chief Barton appeared unified. But in interviews with The Daily Beast, Council Members Eric Mays and Tonya Burns wasted little time in squarely blaming Mayor Neeley—who they claimed must have been the one who overrode the fire chief.