Trapped in an apartment laundry room, an NC man died waiting for help, lawsuit says
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- Jason Pulliam died of heart failure in the Ashton Place Apartments laundry room.
- Pulliam got stuck in the room, unable to escape or let emergency workers inside.
- Debra Davies, his mother, is suing the landlord and has formed a tenants union.
Debra Tanner Davies says her son came to her Durham apartment in 2024 to help her while she recovered from surgery.
But on Nov. 25 of that year, three days before Thanksgiving, she said that visit ended abruptly with her 39-year-old son Jason Lamonte Pulliam dying on the floor of the Ashton Place Apartments’ laundry room after residents were trapped behind what a lawsuit calls a “heavy, metal, windowless door.”
“This action arises from the tragic and preventable death of Jason Lamonte Pulliam,” Davies says in a lawsuit now filed in Durham County Superior Court.
The lawsuit names DHIC Inc., Ashton Place Housing, LLC, Ashton Place Managing Member, LLC, and Community Management Corp. as defendants. The four companies are the property owners and managers of Ashton Place, a low-income apartment building advertised for people 55 and older next to Durham’s American Tobacco Campus.
Davies, 67, moved in after retiring from the Durham County Clerk of Court’s office, the lawsuit says. She moved to the building in hopes of enjoying her retirement in a new community with neighbors similar in age. Instead, for the past two years, Davies has been seeking justice for her son and forming a tenants union to address the building’s safety and security issues.
The lawsuit, filed June 3, claims the laundry room lacked “safe and operable means of egress,” and that “lifesaving medical intervention was materially delayed.”
Davies, represented by Lee Rodio of Raleigh based Howard Stallings Law Firm, is seeking damages for wrongful death, negligence, gross negligence and other claims.
In an email, a spokesperson for DHIC said the group was aware of the lawsuit and “deeply sorry for the loss suffered by the family of Mr. Pulliam,” but said it could not provide further comment “out of respect for the legal process.”
‘Unable to escape’
The lawsuit details the moments before and after Davies found her son, after she returned home by train from a trip to Greensboro.
Davies and Pulliam had texted earlier that evening about him picking her up from the train station, the complaint says.
At 8:47 p.m., she texted him that she had arrived at the Greensboro station for the ride to Durham, and he replied: “OK,” the complaint says.
Moments later, Davies received a call from her neighbor, Cheyenne Foster, who told her she had heard “what sounded like a dog bark loudly, followed by what sounded like a commotion coming from the hallway,” the complaint says.
Foster had called to suggest that Davies use a side entrance to the building “so as to avoid the source of the apparent commotion.”
However, either by fate or mother’s tuition, Davies asked Foster to check on Pulliam, who had congestive heart failure. Foster reported the commotion seemed to be coming from the laundry room, “but they were not able to see in because the room was secured by a heavy, metal, windowless door,” the complaint says.
Inside, Foster found Pulliam “unresponsive on the floor.”
An unidentified woman who had been doing laundry told investigators that Pulliam had entered the room “appearing distressed and in need of assistance,” and that, as his condition worsened, she realized she needed to get immediate emergency help.
The door “had become inoperable from the inside, preventing their escape,” the filing alleges.
“She then attempted to escape through a window, only to discover that it opened approximately four inches,” the complaint says, adding that neither Pulliam nor the woman had a cellphone.
“Unable to escape, unable to call for help, and unable to attract the attention of others in the building, she watched helplessly as Jason’s condition continued to worsen,” the lawsuit says.
Police body-camera footage
About 9:42 p.m., Foster and another resident entered the laundry room and called 911. The two residents who came in also became trapped.
The first emergency responder to arrive was Durham Police Cpl. Zack Starritt. Body camera footage from him confirmed everyone in the laundry room was “involuntarily trapped and unable to exit.”
Starritt reached Pulliam around 9:49 p.m. and began CPR, the lawsuit says. After attempts to save his life, and after Davies and her daughter arrived, Pulliam was pronounced dead at 10:43 p.m.
His official cause of death was cardiomyopathy, a disease of the heart muscle.
A tenants union formed
In April, Davies and members of Ashton Place Seniors in Action, the tenant advocacy group, met with The News & Observer in her living room to detail their demands and experiences living in the apartment building.
The North Carolina Tenants Union helped form the group, made up of residents in Ashton Place, who say management has repeatedly ignored complaints of garbage piling up, security gaps and a lack of communication.
Before a meeting with DHIC officials and the Ashton Place Seniors in Action members in May, the management group acknowledged them as a union, according to Davies. However, the recognition was rescinded because DHIC is not obligated by federal law to do so.
The laundry room door now has a narrow, rectangular glass window cut into it. Davies said she still struggles to pass by the room but continues living in Ashton Place to remember her son and honor him by fighting for what she believes is right.
This story was originally published June 11, 2026 at 5:40 AM.