Miami (AFP)
Four employees of a Florida retirement home have been charged with manslaughter following the ordeal of 12 residents in their care who died of heat just after Hurricane Irma hit in 2017.
This "horrible tragedy that should never have happened", in the words of the local police chief, had at the time indignant Americans.
The Hollywood Hills retirement home, located north of Miami, had its air conditioning decommissioned by the cyclone. The temperature had then reached an unbearable level for the elderly housed.
Two years later, the judicial inquiry was a turning point with the prosecutions announced Tuesday against the manager of the retirement home, a night nurse and two nurses, under arrest and charged with involuntary homicide with aggravating circumstances, as well as attempts to conceal evidence.
"These individuals were committed to providing care and security for these people on their premises and they betrayed their oath," said Hollywood Police Chief Chris O'Brien.
The staff had allowed the situation to deteriorate for three days after Irma's passage. The residents had long suffocated before expiring, some to the hospital where they had been transported too late.
The victims, eight of whom died on September 13, 2017, were between 71 and 99 years old.
The tragedy had all the more shocked that it could have been simply avoided with a backup generator restoring air conditioning in this facility hosting a hundred people.
Denouncing an "unimaginable" tragedy in a state where many retirees live, the governor of Florida, Rick Scott, had ordered an official investigation and the suspension of the activity of the establishment.
© 2019 AFP