NEWS

Video: Footage shows incident with 8-year-old two days before suicide

Anne Saker
asaker@enquirer.com
Gabriel Taye in a year-old photograph when he was in second grade at Carson Elementary School in West Price Hill. Gabriel was 8 when he died of suicide Jan. 26.

Previous reporting: Cincinnati Public Schools to release videotape; Student beat him, others kicked him, then he killed himself; Youth suicides in Hamilton County rising

The Hamilton County coroner has reopened her investigation into the death of 8-year-old Gabriel Taye to examine security-camera video from Carson Elementary School that shows the boy getting pulled head first into a restroom wall two days before he died by suicide.

On Friday, Cincinnati Public Schools released 23 minutes of the Jan. 24 video that shows Gabriel on the restroom floor, not moving, for six minutes as more than a dozen students walked past. Some students kicked him, others poked him, until an assistant principal came to Gabriel’s aid. The tape was released after The Enquirer learned of its existence and requested it.

Dr. Lakshmi Sammarco, the coroner, told The Enquirer, “We will review all the new info, including the video when it’s provided.” She said she doubts that she would change the manner of Gabriel’s death but might add other contributing factors to the case file.

In a statement accompanying the video, CPS said it is “reviewing with faculty and staff the procedures regarding adult supervision in the restrooms.”

“In an effort to be completely transparent, we are releasing the video that was reviewed as part of an investigation by the Cincinnati Police Department,” the CPS statement said. “We have uploaded the video, in its entirety, blurring out faces of the students who appear to protect their privacy. We ask that you review the video, in its entirety. It is our firm position that the allegations portrayed in the media are not supported by the video.”

Gabriel, the statement said, “was an outstanding young man, and this is a great loss for his family and our school community.”

CPS spokeswoman Janet Walsh said an administrator is supposed to monitor students going to the restroom. The assistant principal, Jeffrey McKenzie, was in the cafeteria across from the bathroom at the time. When an administrator is unable to attend to the task, another adult at the school is asked to take care of it. "In this case, for whatever reason, apparently this did not occur during the time frame shown in the video."

Gabriel hanged himself at home Jan. 26, two days after the restroom incident. The school video shows Gabriel walking into the restroom and reaching out to shake another student’s hand. That student then pulls Gabriel into a wall. Gabriel slumps to the tile and lays motionless.

A Cincinnati police homicide detective investigating Gabriel’s death looked at the video nearly a week later and wrote a Feb. 3 report to CPS officials. The detective, Eric Karaguleff, called the incident bullying bordering on criminal assault. The police closed its investigation after Karaguleff's report.

CPS initially had refused to release the video but decided to do so to counter what it said was the detective's suggestion that the children who poked or nudged or kicked Gabriel were assaulting him.

Gabriel’s mother said through her lawyer, Jennifer Branch of Cincinnati, that no one at Carson told her about the assault when she collected Gabriel that day. In the evening of Jan. 24, his mother took him to Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center because he was vomiting. After a night in the emergency room, his mother kept him out of school the next day, Jan. 25. On Jan. 26, Gabriel went back to school but at home that night, he hanged himself.

Sammarco’s office performed an autopsy on Gabriel Jan. 27, determined the manner of death to suicide. One line on the report asks for “other significant conditions contributing to death.” The current report has that line blank. New information from a reopened coroner’s investigation could go into that section.

Gabriel's death and the surrounding circumstances have prompted leaders of the Ohio Senate to announce Friday that they have asked the chamber’s education and oversight committees to look into Gabriel’s death.

“No parent should ever have to question the transparency of school officials when it comes to the health and safety of their child,” said a statement from Ohio Senate President Larry Obhof, R-Medina, and Sen. Lou Terhar, R-Green Township. “While we plan to answer some troubling questions about this case in particular by seeking input from school officials and law enforcement, we also want to take a closer look at what’s being done statewide to keep our students safe and our parents informed.”

Cornelia Reynolds, Gabriel's mother, released a statement on The Law Office of Carla Loon Leader's Facebook page Friday night:

Gabriel's death came amid an outbreak of youth suicide in Hamilton County – last year, there were 13 suicides of people under 18, and so far this year, there are seven.