NORTH MIAMI, Fla. – A South Florida father announced at a news conference Tuesday that he has filed a wrongful death lawsuit following the death of his adult son.
Surveillance video released in May 2022 shows Edward Ware being wrestled to the ground at a group home for the mentally ill in North Miami in December 2021.
He was trying to leave the Care Assist facility when the state says he was thrown to the floor.
Sadly, Ware ended up being killed by the people seen in the video, authorities said.
“Edward was only 36 when he was brutally murdered by people who were supposed to be caring for him,” his father, Edward Taylor, said Tuesday. “He was the light of my life.”
Ware’s father, Edward Taylor, spoke to Local 10 News’ Janine Stanwood last year about what happened to his son.
He said he was on the phone with Ware when it all went down.
“The next think I heard was the girl say, ‘Hold him to the mat,’” Taylor said. “All of a sudden, it was a quick silence. Then the girl got back on the phone and told me that he’ll call me right back.”
“At the time of his murder, I was on speaker phone, talking to my son,” he said Tuesday. “The last memory I have of him is hearing the caretakers wrestle him to the floor, hearing him struggle and hearing him take his last breath.”
Three people were charged in Ware’s death. Authorities said the group staff had little training on how to restrain a person without injuring or killing them.
“He trusted them to provide staffing to protect his son, to keep his son safe, and instead, they killed his son,” Taylor’s attorney, Kim Wald, said.
His attorneys say Care Assist is alleging they fall under immunity that certain nurse registries qualify for, but the attorneys say they are actually considered a group home and therefore do not qualify for immunity.
The attorneys, however, say they plan to work with state representative and introduce a bill to wipe out that immunity.
Local 10 News reporter Annaliese Garcia attempted to contact representatives for Care Assist, but there was no management there Tuesday to address the lawsuit.