YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – The mother of the Chase Bank employee killed in the May 2024 Realty Tower explosion was at the site when rescue crews found her son’s body.

Sharnette Crite-Evans, Akil Drake’s mother, had just arrived at her second job when she received a call about the natural gas explosion. She learned her son was missing and got a ride from Pittsburgh, where she lives, to the city and then to the tower, Crite-Evans told Judge Robert N. Rusu Jr. of Mahoning County Probate Court at a hearing Thursday regarding the proposed settlement in the family’s wrongful death lawsuit.

The night of the explosion, Crite-Evans provided descriptions of her son’s tattoos to the police chief and mayor.

“I was there when they found him,” she said. 

Authorities wouldn’t let her see him, but she knew her son was dead.

“I saw the stretcher with the burgundy velour blanket,” a tearful Crite-Evans said. “I knew at that time that my baby was gone. I know what that burgundy velour blanket means. It’s the coroner.”

Drake wasn’t employed at the Chase branch in Realty Tower. He worked at two other branches, according to attorney Patrick E. McFarland, who represents Crite-Evans. He was at the downtown branch for other things, he said without explaining.

Under questioning by McFarland, Crite-Evans acknowledged that Drake was helping bank employees get out of the building before the explosion. Drake had his hand on the door to leave when the explosion occurred, vaulting him into the air. He fell into the basement below.

An autopsy found water in Drake’s lungs, indicating he laid in the basement as water poured in. He was found several hours after the explosion.

Crite-Evans and her daughter and Drake’s older sister, Traesha Pritchard, sued multiple parties, and a $6.1 million settlement was reached last April.

Under that agreement, YO Properties 47 LLC, the owner of the building; LY Property Management LLC, the property manager; and GreenHeart Companies LLC would pay $3 million of the settlement. Enbridge/Dominion would pay $2.9 million; and A Nieder Architects and MS Consultants each would pay $100,000, according to court documents.

Attorney fees total $2.4 million. Rusu said Thursday he would take the proposed settlement under advisement, but he told attorneys he wouldn’t approve some of their expenses.

That includes those for travel, electronic research and Hulu and newspaper subscriptions.

“The court does not approve travel expenses,” Rusu said. “You have a 40% retainer – you can pay travel expenses. That’s the cost of doing business.”

One of the three firms representing the estate and family charged $8,700 in travel expenses, the judge pointed out.

“You’re not going to get all of your expenses that you’re asking for because I don’t think it’s fair to the family,” he said.

The court documents show that 50% of the settlement would be paid to Crite-Evans and 40% would be paid to Pritchard. The remainder would be divided among other relatives: Drake’s surviving siblings and grandparents on his late father’s side.

Crite-Evans and Pritchard testified that Drake tried to establish relationships with his father’s side of the family, but they weren’t involved for much of his life.

Crite-Evans said she raised Drake with her late mother.

“It was his grandmother, me, Akil and Traesha,” she said. “My mother passed, and it was just the three of us. Now it’s just me and Traesha.”

The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the explosion and last May released a slew of documents from the investigation. Included was the NTSB group chair’s pipeline operations factual report, which detailed inaccurate records regarding inactive Enbridge/Dominion natural gas lines.

A scrap crew, employed by GreenHeart, was in the vault of the building removing old utilities. GreenHeart was contracted by the city of Youngstown to remove and relocate utilities in preparation for a city road improvement project.

The crew cut a gas line that was believed to be inactive. The explosion occurred about six minutes later.

Pictured at top: A Chase Bank sign is seen on the Realty Tower after the May 28, 2024, explosion at the building.