A 35-year-old homeless woman in Louisville died after a city Public Works crew accidentally lifted her with a hydraulic garbage-truck claw, then failed to call 911 even after realizing a person had been caught in the pile they were moving, according to an investigative video report by WHAS11 News reporter Travis Breese.
Tyrah Adams died less than two hours after the Feb. 12 incident, and six months later WHAS11 obtained surveillance video, body-camera footage, recorded calls and investigative documents showing not only how the accident happened, but how city employees responded in the minutes afterward.
The newly released material was difficult for Adams’ family to watch, Breese reported, and it raised a central question for her sister, Sandra Akers: why, after so much time had passed, had no one yet been disciplined through the city’s internal process?
Workers Thought The Pile Was Trash
Breese reported that two Louisville Metro Public Works employees pulled into an alley behind a convenience store in the Russell neighborhood at about 8:46 a.m. and began clearing debris from a vacant lot.
The workers apparently believed they were looking at piles of trash, but Adams was wrapped in blankets in one of them.
Attorney Stephanie Rivas, who represents the family, told WHAS11 that the warning signs were visible in the footage, saying the material on the ground looked more like blankets and a person lying down than ordinary bags of garbage.
Akers said her sister had been homeless for more than a year and had been struggling with drug addiction, while family members and friends still tried to stay in contact with her and check on her when possible.
At about 8:50 a.m., the truck’s hydraulic “knuckle boom” claw lifted a white blanket from the ground, and investigative records reviewed by Breese said one employee realized that a person was inside the pile.
“Seeing my own sister being treated like that, in that claw, that’s horrifying,” Akers said.
They Put Her Down But Never Got Out To Check
The workers lowered Adams back to the ground after realizing what had happened, and later told investigators that they tried to ask whether she was all right but could not hear over the noise of the truck.
They believed Adams was a man at the time and discussed seeing movement, apparently taking that as a sign that she was okay.
The truck then moved forward about 75 feet.
Neither employee got out to physically check Adams.
Four minutes after discovering her, the driver said they would call their manager and then EMS, but the manager did not answer and the workers remained inside the truck.
Breese reported that neither employee called 911.
That delay is one of the most troubling parts of the case because the employees already knew the claw had made contact with a human being, yet they relied on visible movement from a distance rather than verifying the extent of the injuries.
Akers said that even someone who had been punctured or badly hurt could still move, and she questioned why the workers assumed movement meant Adams was safe.
Adams Walked To A Store For Help Herself
About two minutes later, Adams got to her feet and began walking toward the nearby convenience store.
“She got up to save her own life while they sat there and they did absolutely nothing except trying to save themselves,” Akers told WHAS11.
Rivas asked why, once Adams stood up and began moving toward the store, neither worker got out of the truck and approached her.
Surveillance video showed one employee briefly opening the passenger-side door and watching Adams before closing it again.
Adams appeared disoriented as she tried to find the entrance, at one point walking into an ice chest outside the store before eventually making it inside and collapsing.
Akers said the footage did not look like someone who was all right, but rather someone who was desperately trying to get help and could barely communicate what was wrong.
At 8:59 a.m., a store employee finally called 911, nearly 10 minutes after the garbage-truck claw had picked Adams up.
The employee had no idea what had happened before Adams entered the store and told dispatchers only that she had come through the door seeking help and then collapsed.
Workers Laughed While Speaking With A Manager
Around the same time, the Public Works manager returned the workers’ earlier call.
Audio obtained by WHAS11 captured the driver telling the manager, in crude language, that he had nearly picked up a homeless person in a pile of trash.
The manager responded with surprise, and the workers could then be heard laughing.
Akers said the exchange sounded as though they were mocking the situation rather than recognizing the seriousness of what had happened.
The manager asked how badly the person had been injured, and at 9:03 a.m. told the workers to contact their supervisor.
Five minutes later, one of the employees walked toward the front of the store and later told police he was checking to make sure someone had called 911.
By then, however, the first emergency call had already come from the store employee rather than the city crew.
The laughter is especially difficult to reconcile with the fact that the workers knew by then that a person had been caught in a powerful hydraulic claw. Even if the original accident was unintentional, their response afterward was a separate issue, and that is where much of the family’s anger is now focused.
Ambulance Arrived Nearly 30 Minutes Later
An ambulance arrived at 9:18 a.m., about 28 minutes after Adams was first lifted by the claw.
A Public Works supervisor also came to the scene while paramedics were there, but Breese reported that the supervisor walked toward the store, saw the ambulance, then turned around and left the immediate area.
The supervisor later told police he did not believe it was an emergency because the ambulance did not have its lights activated.
The ambulance departed for the hospital at 9:36 a.m.
A paramedic later told investigators that Adams went into cardiac arrest in the ambulance, and she was pronounced dead again at the hospital around 10:30 a.m.
Her official cause of death was listed as blunt-force and compressional trauma from a trash-vehicle incident, while fentanyl and cocaine in her system were listed as complicating factors.
The written medical findings cited by Breese also described severe injuries, including broken ribs, a broken arm, a severed spleen, a lacerated liver and hemorrhaging around the neck, along with compressional asphyxiation.
No Criminal Charges, But City Investigation Continues
The Louisville Metro Police Department’s Public Integrity Unit investigated the case and later referred it to the Jefferson County Attorney’s Office.
On May 7, prosecutors declined to charge the two unnamed Public Works employees, saying there was not a reasonable likelihood of securing a conviction on any criminal charge.
The lack of criminal charges does not end the matter, however.
Metro Public Works said its internal investigation remained ongoing, and a spokesperson told WHAS11 that one employee involved was no longer with Louisville Metro Government while two others had been placed on unpaid leave pending the outcome.
Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg also told Breese that he was concerned by some of the conversations captured in the investigation and by the response times, though he said he would wait for the internal review to finish before commenting fully.
Rivas and Akers are also continuing with a lawsuit against Metro Government, and Rivas said the complaint was being expanded beyond the two employees in the truck to include the manager and supervisor.
Six months after Adams’ death, a flower-covered plaque remained in the vacant lot where she had been sleeping.
For her family, the newly released video has turned an already painful death into something even harder to process, because the footage shows not only the accidental pickup itself, but the minutes when people who knew something had gone badly wrong still did not immediately call for emergency help.
Raised in a small Arizona town, Kevin grew up surrounded by rugged desert landscapes and a family of hunters. His background in competitive shooting and firearms training has made him an authority on self-defense and gun safety. A certified firearms instructor, Kevin teaches others how to properly handle and maintain their weapons, whether for hunting, home defense, or survival situations. His writing focuses on responsible gun ownership, marksmanship, and the role of firearms in personal preparedness.
