Family heartbroken after loved one killed walking on downed power line

ATLANTA — A family is heartbroken after they say their loved one was on his way home from work Friday night, when he stepped on an active downed power line and was killed.

Family members told Channel 2's Carl Willis that Tevin Gullatt, 20, came home early because of Friday's snowstorm when he was electrocuted.

"Everybody was worrying, but I told his momma not to worry about it because I thought he was over at his girlfriend's house," Gullatt’s father Melvin Hutchinson told Willis.

But Hutchinson got the heartbreaking news Saturday morning.

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Willis was at the scene the Friday night where he spoke with Charles Barker, who witnessed the tragic incident.

Barker said he saw Gullatt walking and shouted.

"I hollered, ‘Please stop. It's a live wire,'” Baker said.

But that may have startled Gullatt, according to his family. They told Willis Monday night Gullatt had been robbed on the way home recently.

He ran that night, but ran toward the danger.

"He was just scared somebody was going to rob him. He didn't know those people," grandmother Marian Hutchinson said.

As the family grieves they're starting to ask questions about the emergency response.

“It could have been avoided. If they would've done what they were supposed to do,” Marian Hutchinson said.

"It should have been enough time for them to block that street and cut that power off," Melvin Hutchinson said.

Barker says there was a delay.

"I immediately called 911 back. I said, ‘Where are y'all at? This man has been electrocuted. He's on fire.’ They kept asking me, ‘Do I need an ambulance?’ ‘I don't need an ambulance. The man is dead now,’" Barker said.

"I miss my son. That's all I can say. I haven't broke down yet,” Melvin Hutchinson told Willis.

Gullatt was a recent graduate from Frederick Douglass High School. He leaves behind a twin brother.

The family has set up a GoFundMe account to help pay for funeral expenses -- You donate here. 

Cox Media Group