Apartment complex where 3 kids died in fire has been cited nearly 20 times by city
Channel 2 Action News has learned more about the owner of a problem property in southwest Atlanta where three children died in a fire.
Channel 2 Investigative reporter Ashli Lincoln spent the day Monday looking through documents all day and learned the owner is based in New Jersey.
Capital Realty Group boasts promises of quality affordable housing. But City of Atlanta Code Enforcement citations show a property infested with deterioration and derelict.
Records reveal the owner of the Country Oaks Apartments has been issued nearly 20 citations in the past related to 16 different units.
Officers found several units with defective electrical outlets and no working smoke detectors in them.
Last week, three children died inside a unit at the complex because of an electrical fire.
The property is also plagued with several vacant units and buildings with decaying floors, ceilings, and door frames.
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Fulton County tax assessors and City of Atlanta police records show the property is owned by a Roswell-based company. However, it's a New Jersey company that is the real owner.
Lincoln learned that the property was sold in 2019, but because it was a HUD contract, HUD allows for new owners to not only buy the property but the entity name as well.
Municipal court records show the Capital Realty Group in New Jersey is the owner under the Roswell name and has been cited dozens of times and taken to court since 2019.
The company has several pending court cases related to its most recent code enforcement inspection.
Channel 2 Action News reached out to the New Jersey company for a comment. A representative told us it's looking into this situation.
Meanwhile, nearly 400 people have stepped up to help the family of three young children killed in the fire.
According to the Fulton County Medical Examiner's office, they're still investigating and haven't determined the cause of death for the three young kids.
It's a day that still haunts many in the Country Oaks apartments.
'I saw the flames,' Doreliza Hammond told Channel 2's Candace McCowan. 'When I got here the fire chiefs and all of them were going out. A line of them going out, I thought something is really going on.'
It was the middle of the afternoon last Wednesday when fire consumed the apartment building. Fire crews rushed to rescue three young children, but they died at the hospital.
We are now seeing the faces of the children who died: 4-year-old Jhacari White, his 1-year-old sister Xyla. Nine-month-old Xhalia was the third victim.
A GoFundMe page, set up by co-workers of the children's mother, has raised more than $35,000 to help the family.
Channel 2's Ashli Lincoln and Candace McCowan contributed to this article.
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