CINCINNATI- The Hamilton County coroner is asking for a full police investigation into whether an 8-year-old boy’s suicide was a result of bullying and should be ruled suicide, according to our partners at WCPO.
Hamilton County Coroner Lakshmi Sammarco told WCPO her office will dig deeper into the case based on a surveillance video taken inside the school and a police detective’s analysis.
Gabriel Taye, 8, hanged himself on Jan. 26, two days after an incident was caught on camera in the school’s restroom.
A police detective said in an email that the video appears to show one boy picking on Taye and several other kids, according to one of the family’s attorneys.
"Gabe comes in and reaches out to shake his hand and gets pulled to the ground and he lays there unconscious for about 7 1/2 minutes," family attorney Carla Leader told WCPO on Thursday.
Leader said it’s unclear in the video if Taye hit his head on the wall or the floor and if that ultimately knocked him out.
Leader also said the video shows other students pointing, laughing and kicking Taye before school staff found him and revived him.
CPS released a statement Thursday with a different account of what happened. The district said there is no video evidence that other students were beating Taye. The district added that it’s not clear if there’s a connection between the school incident and Taye’s suicide.
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