Dublin police are investigating the death of one custodian and illness of a second custodian who were found Wednesday at the middle school where they worked hours after they failed to show up at home.
Dublin Police officers responding to reports of the two missing custodians found them at Fallon Middle School’s library around 7 a.m. suffering from unknown medical issues, police said in a statement. Officers reported a strange chemical smell but could not immediately identify the source.
James Covington, 32, of Pittsburg, died at the scene. His cause of death remained unknown as of Wednesday evening, police said.
An autopsy will likely be performed next week, according to the Alameda County coroner’s office.
Another victim, a 29-year old woman, was transported to a local hospital for treatment.
The Alameda County HAZMAT team scoured the school, but found no hazardous chemicals or materials. The building was deemed safe for re-entry, police said.
Tamara Covington-White, Covington’s mother, said police should have done more to find her son and the other custodian — a woman she said was her son’s fiancee after she reported them missing at 2 a.m. Wednesday. She identified the woman as Shameka Wilbon, who remained hospitalized Wednesday evening.
Police “could have saved him if they hadn’t wasted all that time,” Covington-White told The Chronicle Wednesday evening. “They were nonchalant. They were just walking around it was like it was no big deal, like I was just over-exaggerating.”
Covington-White said police told her they had checked the school property and found no signs of Covington or Wilbon after her initial 911 call at around 2 a.m. But her concern grew as the night wore on and the pair did not return.
Growing increasingly frantic, Covington-White said she drove 40 minutes from Pittsburg to Dublin around 6 a.m., arriving to find the middle school gate unlocked with the pair’s car sitting in the parking lot.
“I started banging on doors and called 911, telling them, ‘I can’t find my son,’” she said.
By the time a school official arrived with the key to the school, it was too late. Covington’s body was carried from the library to the school lawn, Covington-White said, where first responders tried and failed to resuscitate him.
Covington-White, who estimates she spoke to her son three times a day, said Covington told her he and Wilbon had recently received training for use of a new chemical for coronavirus decontamination.
The school district’s superintendent did not reply to a request for comment.
Covington “was the most loving, caring kid,” she said. “To know him was to love him. He was my voice of reason.”
Covington-White believes the police could have done more to save him.
“People will say, ‘That’s part of grieving. No. I knew something was not right,” she said.
Nora Mishanec is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: nora.mishanec@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @NMishanec
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December 24, 2020 at 08:36AM
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One custodian dead, another hospitalized in mysterious chemical incident at Dublin middle school - San Francisco Chronicle
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