Robert Skidmore was born in Flint, raised a family there and lived his entire life in and around the blue collar town that — next to Detroit — was synonymous with manufacturing of cars and trucks.
But his December 2015 death has been blamed on Legionnaires' disease and linked to a tainted water crisis that on Wednesday led to involuntary manslaughter and other charges against five officials, including the director of Michigan's Health and Human Services department.
The 85-year-old Skidmore was one of 12 people to die from the disease and nearly 100 cases of people being sickened from it.
Wednesday's charges are part of the criminal investigation into how Flint's water system became poisoned after officials tapped the Flint River in 2014.
The 48-year-old Nick Lyon is accused of failing to alert the majority-black population about an outbreak of Legionnaires' disease in the Flint area, which has been linked by some experts to poor water quality in 2014-15.
