Mother of 2 Children Who Likely Froze to Death in Van Says 'It Took 2 of My Kids to Die' to Get Help (Exclusive)

Tateona Williams is speaking out after two of her children died while sleeping in a van at a Detroit parking garage.

According to the Detroit Police Department, the incident occurred on Monday, Feb. 10, on the ninth floor of the Hollywood Casino parking garage, where the family was seeking shelter inside the van. At the time, temperatures were below 32 degrees.

Williams, 29, told PEOPLE in an exclusive interview that the deceased are her children Darnell Currie Jr., 9, and A'millah Currie, 2. 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.

Williams spoke with PEOPLE alongside Detroit Board of Police Commissioner Tamara Liberty Smith, who is also the director of Detroit Power Detroit Community Outreach, a transitional housing service Williams was referred to on Monday evening.

At a press conference on Tuesday, Feb. 11, Interim Detroit Police Chief Todd Bettison said 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 friend, another close relative, to help" because their vehicle had stopped running at some point in the night.

Williams told PEOPLE that when she woke up, she saw "stuff coming out" of Darnell's mouth, then had him rushed him to the hospital. "They really couldn't do much because I guess it was too late," she said.

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

Authorities, who were in communication with the family, said they were later notified by the hospital that the two children had died.

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Although it will be up to the medical examiner to determine an official cause of death, police said that "right now it appears it was exposure to hypothermia.“ (While speaking with PEOPLE, Williams suggested that at the hospital she was also told that carbon monoxide could be to blame, but pointed out that officials remain "unsure" of what happened and are waiting for an official autopsy to be completed.)

The investigation is ongoing and, according to Bettison, and Williams confirmed the three surviving children are with other relatives.

Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan, who was also at the Feb. 11 news conference, said that "the heartbreaking part of this is that there were family shelter beds available just a few miles away," and that the family had contacted the city’s homeless response team multiple times, most recently on Nov. 25, 2024.

“In the course of that conversation there was no resolution reached on where they would go,” said Duggan. “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.”

He added 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 in her interview with PEOPLE, Williams said she "kept calling" homeless services 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."

When Williams called Detroit's Homeless Services on Nov. 25, they told her no family rooms were available, but they would let her know when one did. They never did, she told PEOPLE.

Smith explained to PEOPLE that Williams and her family had a "unique" situation because shelters would have to make "special accommodations" for the family. Smith said Williams and her family are staying at Detroit Power Detroit Community Outreach, an independently-owned shelter.

In his news conference, the mayor called on Deputy Mayor Melia Howard and Housing and Revitalization Department director Julie Schneider to furnish a review about this case within two weeks.