Cause of Death Revealed for 2 Children Who Died After Sleeping in Van amid Freezing Temperatures

• Darnell Currie Jr., 9, and A'millah Currie, 2, died last month after they spent the night inside a van at a Detroit parking garage
• Tateona Williams, the children’s mother, previously told PEOPLE that due to the cold weather, she kept "the heat on" for her family
• The Wayne County Medical Examiner's Office stated in an email to PEOPLE that the cause of the children's deaths was "carbon monoxide toxicity"

Authorities in Detroit have revealed the cause of death for two children who died after sleeping in a van amid freezing temperatures.

In an email to PEOPLE on Wednesday, March 5, the Wayne County medical examiner stated that siblings Darnell Currie Jr., 5, and A’Millah Currie, 2, died of carbon monoxide poisoning. 

“The Wayne County Medical Examiner’s Office has determined the cause of death for 2-year-old A’Millah Currie and 9-year-old Darnell Currie, Jr. as carbon monoxide toxicity.  The manner of death for both children is accident,” Dr. LokMan Sung, the chief medical examiner, said in a statement.

Sung added that the complete examinations were conducted at the medical examiner’s office on Feb. 11, and the cause and manner of death were later certified on Wednesday.

PEOPLE contacted Tamara Liberty Smith, a representative for Tateona Williams, the mother of Darnell and A'Millah, for comment about the medical examiner's findings, but did not receive an immediate response.

Police said the incident occurred on Monday, Feb. 10, on the ninth floor of the Hollywood Casino parking garage, where Williams' family sought shelter inside the van. At the time, temperatures were below 32 degrees.

Speaking with PEOPLE last month, Williams identified her children who died as Darnell and A'Millah. The other adult in the van was Williams' mother, Yvette Goodman, 48. Four of the children, including the two who died, were Williams', while the fifth was Goodman's son.

Interim Detroit Police Chief Todd Bettison said at a press conference on Feb. 11, that even before Williams, whom he did not identify by name, "realized that her 9-year-old son wasn't breathing," she had already called a family friend for help because their vehicle had stopped running at some point in the night. 

Williams said that her mother, who stayed behind, later realized the 2-year-old wasn't breathing and the family friend returned to take them to the hospital as well.

Authorities were later notified by the hospital that the two children had died.

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Williams told PEOPLE that when she woke up, she saw "stuff coming out" of Darnell's mouth, but at the hospital they "really couldn't do much because I guess it was too late."

In the Feb. 11 briefing, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan noted that "the heartbreaking part of this is that there were family shelter beds available just a few miles away." He shared the family had contacted the city’s homeless response team multiple times — most recently on Nov. 25.

“In the course of that conversation there was no resolution reached on where they would go,” he said. “And one of the things when you call our homeless services folks is that if it’s an emergency situation, we send out one of these outreach workers … For whatever reason, this wasn’t deemed an emergency that caused an outreach worker to visit the family.”

The mayor said that based on what authorities could determine at the time “the family never called back again for service," nor did any member of the response team reach out to the family.

But Williams told PEOPLE that she continued to call the agency for help after Nov. 25.

"I kept calling. I called out of state, cities, different states. I asked Detroit for help," Williams said. "And they still would say, when I called, they didn't have no beds. But it took two [of] my kids to die... for them to want to help."

Smith, the director of Detroit Power Detroit Community Outreach, a transitional housing service Williams was referred to following the death of her children, explained that Williams and her family had a "unique" situation because shelters would have to make "special accommodations" for the family.

Duggan had called on Deputy Mayor Melia Howard and Housing and Revitalization Department Director Julie Schneider to develop a report of the case.

Meanwhile, Williams and her two surviving children were recently gifted with a new home for free for a year due to the efforts of the City of Detroit and Detroit Rescue Mission Ministries.

"I love the house. I think it's wonderful," Williams told CBS affiliate WWJ at the time. "It actually means a lot. It's a lot I'm going through right now, so this makes me happy because I was sad today."