COBB COUNTY, Ga. — Hassan Kariem’s 13-year-old niece was sitting next to him on the Goliath roller coaster as the tragedy at Six Flags Over Georgia unfolded, according to their family.

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The girl’s father and Kariem’s brother-in-law said the two of them were excited to ride Goliath for her 13th birthday.

“And he said that this was one of his favorite rides and how excited he was to be there,” Joshua Nelson told Channel 2’s Ashlyn Webb.

Kariem and his niece, Navi, boarded the Goliath side-by-side. But moments later, something went terribly wrong.

“She said he fainted or passed, her words were ‘he passed out’ … and she said it went up again and his, his latch, I guess, snapped or came, came loose and he fell,” Nelson said.

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Navi called her father in tears, struggling to explain what she had seen.

“And at the time I’m thinking that, that can’t be accurate,” her father said.

They later learned that Kariem did not survive.

Now, Nelson keeps thinking about the final conversation he says his daughter had with her uncle. Just before the ride, he says Kariem told his niece how fun the ride would be before asking her to hold his sunglasses.

“That’s just kind of what I’ve been holding on to, hoping that that’s the last thing he remembers,” Nelson said. “I do hope that he didn’t feel any pain. And the last thing that he can recall was that moment of happiness.”

But along with that hope comes questions.

“A large part of me does believe, you know it was a freak accident, but the other part of me, you know, questions was could this have been prevented?” Nelson told Webb.

Back home, Nelson has a small reminder of Kariem’s love: a Harry Potter-theme cake topper with Navi’s face on it. Kariem made it himself for her birthday party the night before he died.

“That’s just who he always was. He always showed up and he just had a pure heart. He was always giving,” Nelson said of his brother-in-law.

Nelson said his daughter was cleared by paramedics at the scene. He wants answers and accountability to make sure another family doesn’t experience the same heartbreak.

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