The family of a young Georgia man who was killed after being run over by a garbage truck while he was sleeping by a dumpster in a strip mall has filed a $10 million lawsuit, their attorney said.
William Earl Head’s body was severed in the tragic incident in April 2024 after garbage truck employees in the city of Carrollton, just 45 miles west of Atlanta, didn’t see the 23-year-old, according to Fox5 Atlanta.
“He ran over him and then backed up over him,” attorney Mac Pilgrim, who is also Head’s cousin, told the outlet. “It’s one of the most gruesome things I’ve seen…his body was separated.”
When employees of businesses in the strip mall first came across Head’s body, they initially believed he was a mannequin, Pilgrim said.
“The body was not reported until later on in the morning into the daylight hours, because employees of the businesses had gone to the dumpster and believed, honestly, they thought it was a mannequin until they got a little closer,” he told the outlet.
It was not immediately clear why Head, a warehouse worker according to an online obituary, was sleeping near the dumpster.
The city of Carrollton is named as a defendant in the suit due to “employee behavior,” Pilgrim told Fox5, along with the former owner of the strip mall for “the dumpster’s positioning and a lack of lighting.”
A city of Carrollton spokesperson declined to comment when reached by The Independent, citing active litigation.
Pilgrim said the suit is demanding accountability and seeking justice over Head’s death.
“He was a young man. And if all of us looked at ourselves as young people, we were not who we are now,” Pilgrim said. “We’re not who we’ve become, and he doesn’t get that chance. We’re trying to get justice for him.”
The attorney said he hoped the discovery phase of the lawsuit would reveal more information about what happened.
The Independent contacted Pilgrim for further information.
An online obituary for Head said he died on April 23, 2024 and is survived by his sister and other extended family members.
