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High school coaches charged with murder in heat death of Georgia teen

JONESBORO, Ga. (AP) — A grand jury has charged two coaches with murder and child cruelty in the death of a Georgia high school basketball player who suffered a heat stroke after practicing outdoors in nearly 100-degree weather.

Court records indicate the Atlanta-area grand jury indicted Larosa Walker-Asekere and Dwight Palmer last month.


Sixteen-year-old Imani Bell was a junior at Elite Scholars Academy in Clayton County.

She was participating in required conditioning drills for the girls’ basketball team in August 2019 when she collapsed after running up the football stadium steps.

She died later that day of heat-related cardiac arrest and kidney failure. Court records don’t list an attorney for either defendant.