Wrongful death lawsuit filed after 2024 drowning deaths of 2 kayakers in White River

INDIANAPOLIS — A wrongful death lawsuit has been filed after two men drowned while kayaking on the White River in downtown Indianapolis last year.

The lawsuit, which was filed Monday in Marion Superior Court 13, centers on the April 16, 2024, drowning deaths of 30-year-old Marcus Robinson and 22-year-old Solomon Shirley after their kayaks were forced underwater by the Emrichsville Dam, which has been described as a “low head dam.” Many advocates have been calling for the city to remove the dam entirely for safety reasons after it failed in 2018.

The plaintiffs in the legal proceeding include Yvette Ellis, who is identified as the special administrator of the estates for both Robinson and Shirley. The lawsuit alleges the City of Indianapolis, the Indianapolis Parks and Recreation Department and Indianapolis Department of Public Works were negligent for not properly warning kayakers traversing White River that the Emrichsville Dam was a “potentially fatal hazard.”

“Marcus and Solomon did not know of the presence of the dam and/or were not aware that it posed a potentially fatal hazard because those responsible for the dam and the surrounding waterway, including the Defendants, failed to place and/or maintain signs warning of the presence and lethal danger of the dam,” the lawsuit said.

According to previous reports, IFD’s search response team was called on April 16, 2024, to the area between W. New York Street and Limestone Street after witnesses reported seeing two kayakers go under the water near the Emrichsville Dam and not reemerge.

According to the lawsuit, Indianapolis Mayor Joe Hogsett and the other defendants were “fully aware of the lethal hazard posed by Emrichsville Dam after the mayor’s office received several requests from local nonprofits, including Friends of the White River, to remove or modify the existing dam.

The lawsuit claims all of these requests were ignored, including an effort to have more warning signs placed upstream of the dam. The city did add a sign upriver of the dam warning people to get out and to avoid paddling through the dam. It is visible from the east side of the 16th Street bridge.

However, the lawsuit asserts that the placement of this one sign does not adequately convey the imminent danger the dam poses.

“The only attempt at warning whatsoever were signs placed on the 16th Street bridge stating “Rapids Ahead,” the lawsuit said. “That signage did not accurately convey the condition of the river and, rather than serving as a warning of a dam and lethal hazard, likely enticed boaters
to engage in an expected natural rapids condition rather than an unnatural lethal
danger.”

The lawsuit also referenced the 2021 death of 17-year-old Kevin Rodriguez, who was pulled under the same dam and drowned.

Shortly after the deaths of Robinson and Shirley, the Indianapolis Department of Public Works and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service announced that plans were underway to remove Emrichsville Dam thanks to a $750,000 grant for the National Fish Passage Program.

However, the lawsuit said all three deaths were “foreseeable” and were directly caused by “negligence” on behalf of the defendants.

The lawsuit is seeking monetary compensation to help cover costs associated with burial and funeral expenses and attorney fees. Additionally, the plaintiffs are seeking a jury trial in the case.

FOX59/CBS4 has reached out to Mayor Hogsett’s office, the Indianapolis Parks and Recreation Department and Indianapolis Department of Public Works for their comments on the newly filed lawsuit.