Rande Iaboni, (CNN) — A contractor connected with a fatal building collapse in Philadelphia now faces murder charges.
The Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office said Monday that Griffin Campbell, 49, is charged with six counts of third-degree murder and six counts of involuntary manslaughter.
On June 5, a four-story wall of a vacant building collapsed onto an adjacent Salvation Army thrift store, killing six people and injuring 13.
Campbell also faces charges of recklessly endangering another person, causing catastrophe, risking catastrophe and criminal conspiracy.
Officials have said Campbell’s firm was in charge of demolishing the building that collapsed.
A grand jury’s investigation found that Campbell failed to address an architect’s warning about the wall the night before the collapse, the district attorney’s office said in a written statement.
Campbell promised to build scaffolding to support the wall and said he would reduce its height to the roofline of the Salvation Army building, the statement said.
“In reality, however, Campbell was unwilling to pay for enough labor to perform the task,” the statement said.
Earlier this year, authorities charged crane operator Sean Benschop with involuntary manslaughter. Benschop has maintained his innocence. In June, his attorney, Daine Grey Jr., said his client was “being made the scapegoat in this situation.”