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Officials Order Fence Closed

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By VALERIE KALFRIN

The Tampa Tribune

Published: April 15, 2008

TAMPA - As a grandmother reeled with grief, code enforcement inspectors on Monday ordered an apartment complex to fix a fence on its property where a 5-year-old boy slipped through a gap and drowned in the Hillsborough River on Sunday.

Residents at the Columbus Court Apartments said they have complained to the property manager about the gap in the metal fence overlooking a drainage culvert where Jamel Jeffrey Johnson was found dead Sunday. Police have wrapped yellow tape across the gap.

The child's grandmother, Pamela Goulbourne, 41, said she had told other parents to complain about the fence but also blamed herself.

"I failed him," she said between tears. "I always tell him I'll protect him. ... I stay on him about going back there all the time."

Larry Canalejo, a code enforcement supervisor, said inspectors found the complex in violation of city code because of the gap, which appeared to be where a gate once stood.

The city does not require having fences on riverfront property, but it does require that a property owner maintain an existing structure, he said. Code enforcement also asked the property to fix a section of fence where a metal post is missing.

The complex could be penalized for not fixing the fence, but Canalejo could not say Monday what the penalty might be. The property manager has 120 to 150 days to decide whether to fight the violation and appear before a hearing master, he said.

Code enforcement has not received any complaints about the fence previously, he said.

The property manager declined to speak to a reporter on Monday.

The apartment complex is owned by NPI Columbus Court LLC in Houston and contracted to provide Section 8 housing, said Don Shea, the director of North Tampa Housing Development Corp.

Calls to the Houston company's spokesman were not returned.

Shea said his agency maintains a call center for residents' complaints but has not received any complaints about the fence. Since 2004, there have been two federal real estate assessment inspections for Housing and Urban Development; neither has mentioned problems with the fence, Shea said.

However, this doesn't mean residents haven't complained to the management office at the complex about the property, he said.

Neighbors such as Xiomara Velez, 30, whose two children played ball with Jamel, were crushed by his death. Velez said she has complained to the office about the gap in the fence for at least two years.

"They should've gotten this done a long time ago," she said. "I still don't believe it. ... All I saw was his beautiful smile. That angel smile."

Tampa police spokeswoman Andrea Davis said detectives have not finished their investigation into the boy's death but consider it an accident. They do not anticipate filing criminal charges.

Goulbourne said she, Jamel, the boy's mother and his two younger siblings all share a third-floor apartment at 2813 Valentine Court. Goulbourne said she watches the children while their mother works.

On Sunday, after eating breakfast and watching cartoons, Jamel wanted to play outside. "It had already been raining. I didn't want him to go," Goulbourne said.

She said she took a nap while the children's grandfather, Eric Knight, was visiting. When she awoke, Jamel's mother had called to invite them to dinner at another relative's home, Goulbourne said.

Knight and Jamel were gone, but that wasn't unusual, she said. Knight often "was in and out" but often checked on Jamel, she said.

When she went outside, she said she found Jamel's playmate, also 5, "walking in circles with his head down and hands down."

"He was saying it so soft: 'Jamel in the water.' The first time he said it, I just knew. I just ran," Goulbourne said.

She saw Jamel's shoe floating in the water by the culvert and asked Knight, who arrived amid the commotion, to look for him, she said. He dove in and retrieved the boy.

"He had a smile on his face," she said of the child.

Police said the boy did not know how to swim.

Knight and the boy's mother, Erica Knight, were not at the apartment Monday.

The child's paternal grandfather, Jeffrey Johnson, 48, of Tampa, does not live at the complex but visited Goulbourne on Monday, saying he thought the complex should maintain the fence.

"This is a safety issue for anybody why this gate isn't here," he said. "It could've been anybody's child."

Goulbourne's niece, Roshon Plummer, who was visiting from Jacksonville with her children, also tried to console Goulbourne. "Even though they say you gotta watch your kids, kids are curious. It's like going to the beach and saying, 'Don't go out too far.'"

Plummer was concerned Jamel's death would draw more children toward the site, instead of warning them away. "You gonna have kids going back there for real now. 'Here's where little Jamel was,'" she said.

News Channel 8 reporter Chip Osowski contributed to this report. Reporter Valerie Kalfrin can be reached at (813) 259-7800 or vkalfrin@tampatrib.com.

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