DAYTON — He was a teenager on his way to school when a man shot and killed him.
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It happened near the RTA hub in downtown Dayton.
There are big changes in the civil wrongful death lawsuit from Alfred Hale III’s family.
The family’s lawyers have dropped the City of Dayton and Dayton Public Schools as defendants in the suit.
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“The easiest way I think to understand it is the case has really just kind of narrowed more so than anything,” Robert Gresham said.
Robert Gresham is the lawyer for Hale’s family.
His law firm has argued in its lawsuit that the Greater Dayton RTA knew about issues related to crime and violence at its hub in downtown Dayton, but didn’t do enough to stop it, and that because of that, Hale ended up dead.
Hale was 18 and on his way to class at Dunbar High School in April 2025 when Julius Williamson murdered him, shooting him after an argument in front of a store.
Hale and Williamson didn’t know each other.
The Greater Dayton RTA, the shop’s owner, and its landlord at the time are still defendants in the lawsuit.
RTA sent us a statement saying:
“The tragic shooting referred to in this lawsuit did not happen on RTA property or on an RTA vehicle. As observed on RTA surveillance video, all of the student’s activities from the time he boarded the RTA bus and left RTA’s downtown property were routine. The shooting and confrontation leading up to the shooting took place in front of a private business off RTA property.”
Just last month, when a judge sent Williamson and his girlfriend to prison for their roles in Hale’s murder, we heard from Hale’s mom, Nellie Bailey.
“I don’t understand it. I just know that my life is shattered,” Bailey said.
Bailey died on Saturday.
We had heard Hale’s grandmother say at the end of the criminal case that Hale’s father just died in November.
“I’ll never see my grandson again. I’ll never see my son again because he grieved himself to death,” Mattie Coleman said.
And now the civil case will go on without Hale’s mother.
“The family’s mourning her. We’re mourning her. We’re going to continue to push this case forward and fight for the justice that we were seeking while she was alive. She lived with this. That’s what she wanted. And that’s what she wanted us to pursue. So we’re going to continue to do that,” Gresham said.
Gresham said Bailey was in charge of her son’s estate.
So the law firm will suggest someone else to fill that role, but the final decision on who that will be is up to the Montgomery County Probate Court.
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