Family sue Santa Barbara after son is fourteenth person to slip off cliff and fall to his death
Topics: US News
Emily Brown
Featured Image Credit: GoFundMe/ Santa Barbara County Fire Department
Topics: US News
A family in California are pursuing criminal charges in Santa Barbara after their 23-year-old son became the 14th person to fall off a cliff there.
University of California graduate Jacob Parker was attending a party on April 20 when the fun atmosphere took a tragic turn.
The party was located at a house up on a stretch of cliffs in Isla Vista, a neighborhood along the coast in Santa Barbara, where a large crowd had gathered on a balcony overlooking the water.
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Parker had been trying to get through the crowd to reach a gazebo on the balcony, but with people crowding the area, he instead climbed over a 42-inch tall metal wire fence on to a concrete ledge approximately 33 inches wide.
The ledge was bordered by an 18-inch tall metal rail, but when Parker tried to climb back over the cliff he lost his footing and fell approximately 50 feet to the ground below.
Parker sadly passed away as a result of the fall, leaving his family devastated over the loss.
Speaking to Fox News Digital, his mom, Deborah Parker, said: "He had so much potential. I was just looking forward to seeing what he would accomplish in life.
This was just the beginning. It's just tragic that it was taken away from him."
Deborah and Parker's father, George, have now claimed that their son's death was preventable. Before Parker fell from the cliff, 13 other people reportedly lost their lives along the same stretch of land.
Benjamin "Benny" Schurmer, a 19-year-old student, is among those who have lost their lives to the cliff. Following Schurmer's death last year, local lawmakers passed a safety plan which required all new fences to be six feet tall.
Parker's parents are now pursuing criminal charges including involuntary manslaughter, as well as a civil case related to the incident.
George commented: "I'm heartbroken. I'm crushed. I'm at the point where this is now my work. Not just getting enforcement, but I really want to push for criminal charges.
"I don't just want money," he continued. "I want people in jail."
George described the fencing around the properties as a 'clear and present danger that has been ignored', while Santa Barbara County Supervisor Laura Capps, who brought the safety plan forward after Schurmer's death, agreed that the deaths were accidents 'waiting to happen'.
Capps sent letters out to homes along the cliffs offering a 'fee waiver' to incentivize involvement in the safety plan, but says she only heard back from a few properties out of more than 70.
The area is home to a lot of University of California, Santa Barbara, students, though Deborah expressed belief parents don't realize 'how dangerous these homes are along the cliff, because if they [did], they would not let their kids live there'.
The Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Office has said that there is 'not an active criminal investigation' into the deaths, but deputies 'did issue a citation on the day of the incident to the adult host of the party at the residence for a violation of 36-6 of the County Code (public nuisance- see subsection c4)'.
"That report will be forwarded to the DA’s Office for review soon," the sheriff's office told Fox News Digital.
A GoFundMe page has been set up to help support Parker's family in the wake of his death.
UNILAD has contacted The Meridian Group, which manages the property, and The Santa Baraba County Sheriff's Office for comment.