Lies. Death. Coverup. How Flint officials allegedly failed 2 children killed in fire.

For Crystal Cooper, it's those six minutes that torment her, those excruciating minutes that have her aching for answers.

She wants to know why her precious boys are gone, why they were trapped in a house fire for more than six minutes — and why two Flint firefighters declared the house empty when her sons were still in their room, waiting for help that arrived too late. A second crew found the two brothers, who died of smoke inhalation just days apart.

Almost eight months later, Cooper is still reeling and waiting for answers in what has morphed into a legal, emotional and political controversy in the city of Flint. It involves allegations of lies and misconduct by two firefighters, the firing of a chief who disclosed their conduct and a mayor accused of hiding the truth to win an election.

On the floor gasping for air

Perhaps most notably, it involves grieving parents who have been pleading for justice for months, heartbroken and furious over what happened last May inside the house on Pulaski Street, where their boys were trapped for 360 seconds in a second-floor bedroom while heavy smoke filled the house.

According to investigators, two firefighters had canvassed the house and gave an-all clear, indicating they found no one inside. But six minutes later, a second crew went in to vent the upstairs, and found the two boys in a bedroom.

One was on the floor gasping for air. The other was partially on a bed, also still alive.

Days later, 9-year-old LaMar and 12-year-old Zy'Aire died from smoke inhalation.

"I stayed by my boys' side day and night," their grieving mother said through tears one November day. "If I could just get six minutes — my babies would still be here with me. ... I want justice for them. They didn't deserve this."

Weekend with dad

It was the morning of May 28 when DeAndre Mitchell, of Flint, went to the YMCA to work out. His sons were visiting that weekend and stayed home alone while he went to the gym.

The boys were looking forward to Memorial Day. Their mom, a nurse, had gotten the holiday off work and was going to take them to Michigan's Adventure after they visited their dad.

But sometime before 9 a.m., an electrical fire would start inside the walls of their dad's two-story home on the 600 block of Pulaski Street, which is just across the street from the fire department. A neighbor saw smoke and called for help.

The fire department got the call at 9:01 a.m. and a crew was on the scene in just over a minute.

A two-person team performed an initial sweep of the house, kicking in the door to get inside. The fire was mostly confined to a sofa chair. One firefighter used a hose to put it out, while his partner went upstirs to search for victims.

According to fire reports, heavy smoke filled the house and created almost zero visibility as the firefighter crawled through the second floor, using his hands, a 5-foot-long hook and a thermal imaging camera to search for victims. His partner eventually joined him and the two felt their way through the smoky second floor.

They found no one, declared an all clear, and called off a second search, a fire report states.

A second crew then entered the house to vent the second floor, only to discover the two children.

The 9-year-old boy was on the floor in the doorway of a room he shared with his big brother, who was found seconds later, lying on a bed.

At 9:16 a.m., six minutes after the first crew declared an all-clear, the younger sibling was removed from the house. A minute later, his brother was carried out.

Rescue crews rushed the boys to the hospital.

Dad: I was treated like a criminal

DeAndre Mitchell had just stepped off a treadmill when he noticed several missed calls on his phone. He got through to an uncle, who informed him there was a fire at his house and one of his children was taken away on a stretcher.

The father raced home, only to be met with what he described as a hostile police force.

When he arrived at the house, Mitchell said, he was immediately surrounded by police. Officers hovered around him for about a half hour, then handcuffed him and placed him inside a cop car before taking him in for questioning.

At the police station, things got worse. Mitchell, who still did not know the status of his boys, said that he was interrogated by two detectives for two hours, and then taken to a hospital, where he was ordered to have his blood drawn. It was to prove paternity — at least that's what he said police told him.

About five hours would pass before he was allowed to go find his family and sons at the hospital.

"They treated me like a criminal," Mitchell told the Free Press, adding he can't fathom why a grieving father would get handcuffed, yet the firefighters who failed to find his boys got no punishment. "Why was I handcuffed and not them?"

The Flint police did not return calls for this article.

Mitchell, along with many other family members, wants the firefighters criminally charged. They believe they failed to perform their duties, and as a result, two children died.

Mitchell also believes race was a factor. His sons were Black. The firefighters who ended up finding them are Black, while the two who initially swept the house and failed to locate the boys are white.

"If this happened in Grand Blanc or Swartz Creek, they would have torn that house apart looking for anybody," Mitchell said. "But this is Flint."

"I want justice," Mitchell told the Free Press. "I wouldn't wish this on anybody. No one should have to go through this."

'Why would God take my kids?'

Cooper, who also has a 2-year-old daughter, was home in bed when a family member messaged her on Instagram to get to her sons' father's house.

"I drove as fast as I could," Cooper recalled, noting she got a second message telling her: "Go to Hurley Hospital."

Panicked and scared, Cooper got lost, but eventually made it to the hospital, where a doctor appeared after an hour and gave her the news. Lamar had to be airlifted to Detroit Children's Hospital for severe injuries from smoke inhalation. His brother had to be stabilized, and was transported to the same hospital by ambulance.

"I stood there crying," recalled Cooper, who believed her sons would survive, that she would soon tell them how strong they both were, how she didn't cry much, and how her youngest got to fly in a helicopter.

"I just had so much hope. I prayed," Cooper said through tears. "I just had faith that this is not going to happen."

Cooper, who is a nurse, never left the hospital. She saw LaMar fighting, and watched him move and try to get up, though the medical staff was concerned for his safety and sedated him, she said.

Cooper continued to pray. So did her mother and three sisters, who were at the hospital every day.

But MRIs would show the boys had no brain function.

Cooper had to let them go.

"I used to pray all the time. I used to go to church," Cooper said in a recent interview with the Free Press.

But her faith has been shaken.

"I’m mad. I’m angry," Cooper said. "My kids were my life. I did right by them. They did right by me. ... Why would God take my kids?"

Chief conducts investigation: Firefighters lied

According to the Michigan State fire marshal, the fire was caused by faulty wiring. Fire investigators also said the house had no working smoke detectors at the time of the blaze.

Months after the fire, against the backdrop of public outrage and pressure from the parents, Flint Fire Chief Raymond Barton conducted an internal investigation of the incident and found misconduct and negligence by the two firefighters who conducted the initial sweep. Specifically, he wrote that firefighters Daniel Sniegocki and Michael Zlotek never searched the room where the Mitchell brothers were found — and lied about their actions that day in their reports.

Barton conducted his own walk-through of the house and determined the two firefighters didn't properly check the second-floor bedrooms, given what he found: "One bed was still made with the items on top of it and appeared undisturbed," the chief wrote in his report.

The report also quotes a lieutenant who helped find the boys as stating: “There was no way that they entered the bedroom where the victims were found and missed them.”

Moreover, Barton maintains, one of the firefighters claimed to have conducted a left-hand search of the bedroom in question, "but he never mentions the bed that he would have come across, with the second victim on top, had he completed his left-hand search of the room."

"I have determined that Sergeant Sniegocki and firefighter Zlotek have knowingly made false reports in their incident write-ups," Barton wrote in his report, concluding the firefighters "possibly contributed to the loss of life of two victims” and injured the "good name of the department.”

Chief gets fired; accuses mayor of coverup

Barton wanted to terminate the firefighters — and recommended firing them in his report — but he says the mayor prevented that from happening.

According to Barton, Flint Mayor Sheldon Neeley — who was up for reelection — didn't want to fire the firefighters because, he alleges, the mayor needed the support of the firefighter's union to win reelection.

Moreover, the chief alleges in a lawsuit filed last week, the mayor wanted him to alter his official report, "cover up" the firefighters' "misconduct," suspend the firefighters with pay and drop his recommendation that they be fired.

Barton refused — and believes it cost him his job. He was fired nine days after Neeley won reelection.

"I didn't do anything wrong," Barton said Monday after filing his suit. "All I did was tell the truth."

City of Flint: 'There is no truth to these claims whatsoever'

The mayor did not respond to calls for comment.

But in a statement to the Free Press, the city of Flint denied wrongdoing by the mayor:

"The May 28 house fire that claimed the lives of two children is a tragedy," the statement reads. "... At no point did undue influence by Mayor Neeley or any other elected official affect the outcome of the investigation, or the imposed employee discipline."

It continues:

"The City of Flint denies all allegations that Mayor Neeley influenced the internal investigation of the Pulaski St. fire and resulting decisions to discipline the firefighters involved in the tragic incident. There is no truth to these claims whatsoever."

The city also stated that "Mayor Neeley did not receive the campaign endorsement of Flint Firefighters Union Local 352."

"There is absolutely no truth to the allegation that there was a cover-up regarding the facts related to the Pulaski Street fire," the statement reads. "The administration has been fully transparent in providing accurate information to the public about the Pulaski Street fire."

Union: Firefighters did nothing wrong

Firefighter Sniegocki, who resigned from the department shortly after the blaze and received no punishment, could not be reached for comment.

Zlotek was suspended without pay for two weeks and ordered to complete an eight-hour search-and-rescue training course. He resigned in November and has since been hired by the Bay City Fire Department, according to that department's Facebook page. He did not return calls for comment.

Their union, meanwhile, has stood by them and maintains the firefighters did nothing wrong.

Flint Firefighters Local 352 spokesman Nick Reitano noted the firefighters had "zero visibility" during their sweep. "They went in that house with no backup and did the best that they could with what they had. They did everything that they were supposed to do."

Reitano said he could not comment on specifics due to pending litigation, but stressed that the tragedy has weighed heavily on both sides.

"It’s not fair to the boys what happened that day," Reitano said, referring to the children who died. "It’s not fair to the guys, either."

He was referring to Sniegocki and Zlotek, whom he described as top-notch firefighters.

"If my family was in a fire, those are two names at the top that I would want to pull me out," Reitano said, adding neither firefighter had disciplinary records.

"One day it will come out. We have the truth. We know what happened that day," Reitano said. "But we can’t comment on it."

In early November, one of the two firefighters defended his actions to ABC12, saying neither he nor his partner lied about searching the second-floor room where the brothers were.

“We did search the bedroom, but did not realize that there was a smaller room attached to it,” one of the firefighters told ABC12, adding, "there happened to be a small bedroom attached to that room that I did not know was there, and neither did my co-worker. I could not believe that I missed that room, I couldn't believe it."

The former chief doesn't buy it.

"They keep saying it's a room behind a room — there's no way possible to miss that room," Barton said after filing his wrongful termination lawsuit Monday.

The firefighter, though, maintains that's precisely what happened — and that it weighs heavily on him.

"To know that you failed at finding someone, that you did everything that you could, and you weren't successful," the firefighter told ABC12, "... It's the absolute worst thing that can happen to any firefighter."

'I want them charged'

To date, no criminal charges have been filed in the case, though Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton has asked the Michigan State Police to investigate the fire response. That investigation is pending.

There's also a pending lawsuit filed by the victims' family against Zlotek, Sniegocki, the city of Flint and the Flint Fire Department. Among those involved in the suit are prominent attorney Todd Flood, who is no stranger to Flint controversies, having previously served on the prosecution team during the city's water crisis.

Flood has hired experts who he believes will prove that the Mitchell brothers would be alive had they been found when the initial firefighters swept the house.

“Every doctor that I have spoken with, every medical expert … says a minute can mean the difference between life and death with smoke inhalation,” Flood has repeatedly said. "Think about that for a moment."

Flood also believes the fire chief's own admissions prove the firefighters made a mistake.

"The chief comes out and confesses, and says that his team did not follow the (rules of the ) job," Flood said. "The chief already admitted they didn't do it right."

For Cooper and her sisters — three of whom are nurses, along with their mom — the firefighters' conduct that day warrants punishment. They liken it to nurses making a mistake in the hospital that costs a patient's life.

"I want them charged," Nicole Clemons, a 36-year-old nurse and aunt to the Mitchell brothers, said of the firefighters. "If we did what they did, we would have been sued and we would have been punished."

'My children were innocent'

One month before the fire, Cooper bought a charming new house in a Swartz Creek subdivision, which is now a shrine to her boys. Framed photos and huge posters of the smiling siblings adorn the walls. And their bedrooms remain untouched. Their clothes still hang in their closets. Their video chairs are by their beds.

Some days, Cooper goes and sits in LaMar's room to remember the good times. Other times, she curls up in Zy'Aire's bed when she's in a bad mood.

Cooper misses them terribly. Her sons jumping into her bed in the morning, kissing them goodnight, and watching her oldest son set out his clothes and meticulously make his bed every day before he left for school. He fancied himself the "man of the house" who cooked noodles on his own and watched over his baby sister, she recalled, while her younger one was the cuddly, affectionate one — curling up next to her if she looked tired or down.

Cooper last spoke with her sons the day before the fire.

She called to tell him she took Memorial Day off from work to take him and his brother to Michigan's Adventure. The boys were thrilled. She was excited.

Then tragedy struck.

"My children were innocent, and for someone to try to cover it up like their lives didn’t matter," Cooper said through tears as she called for criminal charges to be filed against the firefighters.

"They didn't just take my children's lives," she said, "they took mine."

'When those boys called, she ran'

On a recent afternoon in her living room, huddled amid the commotion of her warm and boisterous family, Cooper managed to smile.

There was life in her home. Teenagers taking selfies. Toddlers crying for cereal. Her feisty sister telling a photographer to hurry up and take a family photo because she couldn’t hold her stomach any longer.

Everyone laughed, even Cooper.

"They never leave me alone," Cooper said of her family, smiling.

Cooper's entire family is hurting, especially her mother — who has had to endure the pain of watching her daughter suffer along with the pain of losing her grandchildren.

“I’ve never prayed so much in my life. I asked God to take me, not them,” Cooper’s mother, Rose Jolly, recalled of her days in the hospital with her grandsons. “It still hurts. ... I just feel empty.”

But she does her best to remain strong for her daughter, the selfless mother who once drove across town in the middle of the night to pick up her son LaMar from a sleepover at his aunt's house. His aunt, Shantel Clemons, had told LaMar that she was going to make him learn how to ride a bike that following morning, and he was scared.

So he called his mom, who picked him up.

“That’s the kind of mom she was,” Clemons said. “When those boys called — she ran.”

Tresa Baldas is an award-winning courts and legal issues reporter who was named the 2020 Richard Milliman Michigan Journalist of the Year by the Michigan Press Association. Contact her at tbaldas@freepress.com.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Flint fire that killed Mitchell boys spurs legal and political scandal