ARLINGTON, Texas — Almost two years ago to the day, Tariq Williams' 3-year-old son, Bakari, went to a splash pad in Arlington.
Days later, he died from a brain-eating amoeba linked to the city park.
"I’ve lived through a lot," Williams told WFAA. "That was the worst pain I’ve ever felt."
Williams remembered that pain vividly Wednesday, when the city of Arlington announced the EPA detected the possibility of the same rare amoeba at one of its other splash pads.
"It just makes me feel like it…his loss didn’t mean anything to the world," Williams said. "Because we’re back here."
The city stressed Wednesday the EPA’s sample tested presumptive positive. In other words, the amoeba’s presence is not yet certain. While it waits for definitive results, the city stressed it followed its updated splash pad protocols, bolstered because of Bakari’s death and named in his honor.
Staff said the pad in question had three times the chlorination level recommended by the CDC.
"We got all of [Bakari's protocols] set up…and it’s like, was it just pointless?" Brian Hargrove, Williams' attorney said to WFAA Thursday.
Hargrove said he and his client hope the EPA’s initial reading was just wrong, that the city indeed did its job and that the changes inspired by Bakari kept this amoeba away. But if the definitive result is positive, he said, "then we're gonna have a major problem."
The city said Wednesday it expected it was possible the EPA would get a definitive test result by Thursday or Friday, but said the lab used by the EPA is in northern Florida and is dealing with impacts from Hurricane Idalia.
A city spokesperson did not reply Thursday afternoon when asked for an update.
Williams told WFAA he originally did not plan to talk to news media about the possibility the amoeba had been detected.
"I wasn’t gonna come. I wasn’t gonna do any interviews or anything...because I felt like it would’ve been for nothing," he said.
But then, he said, he looked at Bakari's urn, and heard his son tell him something.
"I heard him tell me, 'Daddy you’re strong,'" he said. "And it gave me everything I needed. And now I’m here."