Here is a story about an Iraqi refugee who died in St. Louis a few years ago when he and a group of other immigrants brought their own soccer goal to a public park, didn’t secure it and he died when he tried to do pull-ups on it.
His family sued the city and just this week received $40,000 in a settlement. It wasn’t more because the jury decided his death was mostly his fault.
From the St. Louis Post Dispatch:
ST. LOUIS • A St. Louis jury awarded $40,000 Thursday to the parents a young man who was crushed by a soccer goal in Wilmore Park.
Karrar Abudarb, a 19-year-old son of Iraqi refugees, had been playing a pick-up game of soccer with 11 of his friends when the fatal accident happened the night of Nov. 19, 2007. According to witnesses, Abudarb hung from the metal crossbar of a portable goal and did some pull-ups, causing it to tip over and crush his skull. City paramedics declared him dead at the scene.
[….]
The makeshift goals that Abudarb and his friends used were next to regulation sized fields and anchored goals that the city provided. But, according to court testimony, the group used the portable goals because they had a small number of players and needed a smaller field.
City Counselor Thomas McDonnell argued the city could not be held responsible for equipment that other people bring into its parks, and said Abudarb knew the goal was not anchored — he helped move it prior to the game — and he realized the risk but swung from it anyway.
Just in the last month we’ve seen Somalis, Bhutanese and Bosnian refugees killed in St. Louis. Has anyone seen any updates on these murder cases?