When 3-year-old Kai Bernabe drowned in the backyard pool at his family’s suburban Los Angeles home, authorities chalked up the toddler’s shocking death to a horrible mishap.
As a police spokeswoman told reporters at an April 2023 press conference, “There’s nothing to indicate anything beyond a tragic accident here.”
However, Kai’s mom and dad now say otherwise.
A heartbreaking lawsuit obtained by The Independent reveals for the first time how Kai and his twin brother Liam, who also fell into the pool but miraculously survived, ended up in the water to begin with — and places the majority of the blame squarely on Amazon, the mega-retailer owned by Jeff Bezos, the world’s second-richest man.
In an email on Wednesday, attorney Andy Morrow, who is representing the family, said, “Unfortunately it is our policy not to comment on pending litigation. I hope you understand.”
The attorneys defending Amazon in the case, along with a company spokesperson, did not respond to requests for comment.
On April 21, 2023, after “an active early morning,” Kai, Liam, and parents Mark Bernabe and Jasmine Coleman laid down for a nap, according to the suit, which was removed last Friday from Los Angeles County Superior Court to Los Angeles federal court. Before turning in, the couple’s complaint says they made sure the sliding glass door to the backyard was securely locked, as always.
“Ordinarily the two toddlers would wake their parents up when they got up,” the complaint states. “But on this day, they didn’t. Video footage reveals they left their parents asleep and went to the sliding glass doors leading to the backyard, placed a chair against the glass and the lock failed and unlatched.”
After the twins went outside and played for a bit, they both entered the pool, according to the complaint. Minutes later, it continues, Coleman can be seen on security footage exiting the house and spotting Kai, unconscious, in the pool’s shallow end. She grabbed his lifeless body and ran back inside, performing CPR on Kai while yelling to Bernabe, who was still asleep, that Liam was missing, the complaint goes on.
Mark jumped out of bed and immediately ran outside, where the complaint says he discovered Liam, unresponsive, in the deep end of the pool.
“He immediately called 911 and Los Angeles Fire Department personnel were dispatched to the… residence,” according to the complaint.
The two were rushed from the house, in Porter Ranch, to the pediatric trauma center at Northridge Hospital, where Kai was pronounced dead. Following a desperate fight for his life, Liam, pulled through.
“There are no words to describe the pain the family is feeling,” a friend wrote in a GoFundMe campaign that raised nearly $80,000. “This fundraiser is an effort to relieve the family of the financial toll of this tragic and unexpected loss.”
In their complaint, Bernabe and Coleman blame Amazon for selling them a “defectively designed” sliding-door lock that was “unsafe for the uses and purposes for which it was intended.”
