A family member of the teen who authorities say fell to his death from a drop tower ride at ICON amusement park in Orlando Thursday has started a petition to close the Orlando Free Fall ride permanently, according to a report.
The Orlando Free Fall is currently closed as the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (FDACS) investigates the ride, but 14-year-old Tyre Sampson’s cousin, Shay Johnson, wants it to shut down for good, WOFL reports.
“I would like this ride to be taken down,” she told WOFL. “My cousin lost his life over this ride. I don’t feel it’s safe, and feel it should be shut down before someone else’s family have to go through what we are going through.”
Johnson collected pages of signatures Sunday at the memorial for Sampson in front of the drop tower ride, the outlet said.
One petition signer named Ashanti said the “ride needs to go.”
“It’s not fair for anyone to come and ride this ride. It’s not fair,” she added.
TikTok star Isaish Edwards signed the petition while attending the memorial Sunday. He told WOFL:
We have kids ourselves, so this is someone’s child when it comes down to it. And any type of sympathetic feeling that you have as a human being you will try to come down here. As a role model in the TikTok industry, I feel like that’s what we can do. Show our support and help the family.
Sampson’s father recently described the utter devastation he feels over the loss of his son, Breitbart News reported, citing WESH.
It felt like somebody hit me so hard in my stomach. I just lost, I lost, lost wind. And the pain behind it could never be taken away, and sorry’s not gonna take it back and no monies, no nothing in the world to replace the young man. And it’s just sad, a young man’s bright future was taken away from him over a ride, an amusement park.
Tyre’s family has retained two high-profile personal injury attorneys – Benjamin Crump and Bob Hilliard – in the aftermath of the incident, Breitbart News reported. Crump, who has frequently represented families of individuals killed by police, was retained by Tyre’s father, Yarnell Sampson, while Tyre’s mother, Nekia Dodd, hired Hilliard, the attorneys said in a press release.
“Bob Hilliard and I, on behalf of both parents, Yarnell and Nikki, intend to get answers for Tyre’s grieving family and request prayers as they shoulder this unthinkable loss,” Crump said.