Legacy.com Kyle Plush
Amber Smith, a Cincinnati 911 dispatcher, is facing a firestorm of criticism due to her handling of an emergency call from Kyle Plush, a 16-year-old Ohio boy who died after being trapped by a seat in his Honda Odyssey minivan in a school parking lot.
Plush made two frantic 911 calls asking police to save him, authorities revealed; the second of those calls was fielded by Smith, who was placed on administrative leave after Plush’s death, which has caused community outrage.
Kyle, who became stuck while reaching for tennis equipment in the family van, was eventually found wedged under the van’s seats. The coroner’s report says that Plush died in the horrific tragedy from “asphyxia due to chest compression and the manner of death is accidental.”
Here’s what you need to know:
1. Plush Begged Two 911 Operators to Get Him Help, Saying ‘Tell My Mom That I Love Her if I Die’
Plush placed two 911 calls while stuck in the minivan. The first call was to a dispatcher named Stephanie Magee, and the second 911 call was placed to Smith, according to Cincinnati.com.
A dying Plush asked both Magee and Smith to get him help. He revealed he was stuck inside the van. You can listen to the calls above. In the first call, Plush says, “I’m stuck in my van…help, I need help.” He repeats several times, “help, help.”
The teenager “was trapped in the third row bench seat,” CNN reported, quoting a prosecutor, adding that one 911 caller said, when Plush was eventually found, that “he was stuck, looks like he was turned over in the seat, he’s stuck there. He’s been there for a while.”
“Where are you?” the dispatcher inquires in the 911 call.
Family of Kyle Plush, Seven Hills student killed in minivan: ‘He is unforgettable’ t.co/KiAQpKckJK
“Help, Help. I’m stuck in my van outside the seven hills (unintelligible) parking lot,” Plush tells the dispatcher. “Send help. I’m going to die here.”
In the second 911 call placed to Smith, Kyle tried again, and this time, he provided critical details that could have helped police locate him. “I probably don’t have much time left so tell my mom that I love her if I die,” the boy says in the 911 call. “This is not a joke, this is not a joke. I‘m trapped inside my gold Honda Odyssey van in the sophomore parking lot of Seven Hills (unintelligible). Send officers immediately. I’m almost dead.”
According to The Washington Post, the boy managed to use a “an automated assistant on his smartphone to make the call Tuesday (April 10, 2018) outside Seven Hills School in Cincinnati.” He is heard calling for “Siri.” The Associated Press reported that the van was a 2004 model and quoted Honda’s spokesman as saying, “Honda does not have any specific information from which to definitively determine what occurred in this incident.”
2. Amber Smith Claims She Couldn’t Hear Kyle Plush, Reports Allege
A picture of the Honda Odyssey and stock photo of a 2002 Odyssey where student Kyle Plush was found not breathing and unresponsive.
However, Cincinnati.com is now reporting that the dispatcher, Amber Smith, “told her supervisors that she couldn’t hear Kyle during that call” but “police and the city’s 911 service provider could find nothing wrong with the phone system.”
According to the newspaper’s exclusive report, the internal review “found the operator, Stephanie Magee, mostly did what she was supposed to do during that first call.” In the case of Amber Smith, though, the newspaper alleges that the internal review found that Smith “told supervisors her computer screen froze, preventing her from entering any information immediately.”
The review gave Magee a 90 percent rating for her handling of the call (considered acceptable) and Smith a 60-percent rating, considered unacceptable, Cincinnati.com reported.
In a 2017 promotion list, Amber L. Smith was listed on the police website as ranking first on an exam and receiving a score of 93.49.
Cincinnati police, two days before Plush died, posted a thank you to dispatchers on the police Facebook page. Facebook has now become a forum for others to vent about police and the dispatch handling of Kyle’s plight. Members of the public took to the comment thread, chastising police for their handling of Plush’s calls. “You just ignored a caller and they died because of your direct actions? Why would you post this? How about reform?” wrote one person.
“Where were the heros (sic) when (Kyle) Jacob Plush called for help several times, dying as he plead for his life? You thought it was a prank? You couldn’t be bothered to find the vehicle he described to you? But somehow others had no problem finding him after it was too late,” wrote another. “Your cynicism cost a young boy pleading for his life everything. How could you? Your inaction is disgraceful as it is disturbing. If you’re so blind to someone’s obvious cries for help that you let them die, you goad them, you ignore them!!”
3. Smith Complained About Her Job on Facebook, Reports Say
A memorial for 16 yo Kyle Plush. He died trapped in his car, even after calling 911 twice. Tonight we know more about the dispatcher on leave pending the investigation. She’s been honored for her work before #WLWT
Amber Smith vented about her job at times on social media. “I’m always at work and working overtime…all it does [is] make us hate our job and hate the people that are off for months…Just feel like venting. That’s all. Nothing will change,” she wrote on Facebook in May 2017.
The Cincinnati Enquirer reported that Smith also complained about her job on Facebook the Friday before the tragedy.
A Cincinnati dispatcher named Amber Smith was featured in a local television station story in 2017 by Local 12 News. That story started: “It’s not unusual for Amber Smith to answer 100 911 calls in a shift.” The story discussed how Smith helped a child whose parents had suffered an overdose. It quoted her as saying, “When there’s kids involved it’s different.”
A 911 operator helps a 9-year-old girl whose parents OD’d on heroin. We talk to her @Local12 after the game
That story explained how Smith had helped the child: “Smith knew she had a scared child on the phone. She used cell phone technology to pinpoint her location.” Firefighters were able to reach the child’s parents in time, according to the television story.
In a story on the Plush death, the television station wrote, “Local 12 News covered a story about 911 call taker Amber Smith in 2017. She took a call from a young girl whose parents overdosed while she was in the van with them. Smith kept the girl calm and was able to pinpoint her location using GPS technology and by asking the girl to tell her what she could see around her.”innati dispatcher named Amber Smith was featured in a local television station story in 2017 by Local 12 News. That story started: “It’s not unusual for Amber Smith to answer 100 911 calls in a shift.” The story discussed how Smith helped a child whose parents had suffered an overdose. It quoted her as saying, “When there’s kids involved it’s different.”
4. Plush’s Family Found Him Dead in the Van Hours After the Boy Called Police
Cincinnati Police Chief Eliot Isaac gave a press conference in which he called the death an “extremely tragic incident.” He provided a chronology of the two 911 calls and what happened to Kyle Plush. On Tuesday, April 10, 2018 at about 3:14 p.m., a 911 call came in to police from a boy saying he was “stuck inside a van” in the Seven Hills parking lot. He “repeatedly yelled for help,” the police said, and loud noises and banging could be heard. That call went to Magee.
The chief said that there was no exchange in dialogue between the call taker and the individual “we now know as Kyle Plush.” The line disconnected after more than 2 minutes. Less than a minute later, the call taker attempted to reach the caller but received a voicemail message on the call back. At 3:21 p.m, the incident was broadcast as an unknown trouble run and squads were dispatched to the location. At 3:26 p.m., a two-person squad car arrived on the scene and attempted to locate the caller or anyone who appeared in distress. The officers closed the incident after finding no one.
At 3:35 p.m., Plush made a second 911 call. A different call taker – Amber Smith – answered the call, according to the police chief. He stated again that he was trapped in the vehicle. During the second call, he provided specific details about the make, model and color of the vehicle that were not provided in the initial 911 call. “The information in this second call was not relayed to the officers who were still on the scene at the time,” the police chief said.
A Hamilton County sheriff’s deputy, who was working a traffic detail at the school, was told about the first call by the responding officers, and he called 911 and said that he had checked a van in the parking lot but did not find anything. That wasn’t Kyle Plush’s van, though. He requested additional information that was available for a secondary check.
It was left to Plush’s family to find the body of their son. At about 8 p.m., the Plush family was contacted by a class mate of their son who said they had seen the teenager heading toward the family van. The classmate said Kyle did not show up for his scheduled tennis match. The family began to check the location using an app on his cell phone. It showed his phone was in the area of the Seven Hills school. The family contacted authorities.
The family responded to the parking lot and located the unlocked van, and Kyle was located inside the vehicle, not breathing and unresponsive, according to the police chief. The police chief said that he had launched a comprehensive investigation into what had occurred. The dispatcher who received the second call is the one who was placed on administrative leave.
The police chief said in his initial news conference that police had not done a formal interview with the dispatcher. “This young man was calling out for help. We were not able to get that information to officers at the scene, and we need to find out why,” the police chief said. Kyle was dead at the scene.
5. Plush Was Remembered as a Young Man of ‘Keen Intelligence’ & Good Humor
#HappeningNow: Celebration of life for Kyle Plush at Mercy Montessori. Kyle was a student here from Kindergarten through 6th grade. Teacher tells me he would give classmates this “Peace Rose” when they were having a bad day @WCPO
In a statement, Plush’s school remembered him as “a young man of keen intelligence, good humor, and great courage, and this whole community feels this loss very deeply.”
Barry Bates, a 9th grader at the school Plush attended, also remembered the teen fondly. Bates told Cincinnati.com that Plush was “amazing. He was great…that kid was always smiling no matter what. He always made the mood better. Always made people happy. He was always smiling. ”
The boy’s obituary requests memorials be made to the Ronald McDonald house. It says that Kyle Jacob Plush was the “loving son of Ron and Jill Plush (nee Zehren) devoted brother of Alli Plush, dear grandson of Joe and Judy Zehren, the late Robert and Gloria Plush, fond nephew of John and Linda Zehren, Dave and Jodi Schwind, Robert Plush, Gloria and Mark Starwalt, also survived by several cousins.”
He died on April 10, 2018 at the age of 16 years and lived in Anderson Twp., Ohio. “Mass of Christian Burial at St. Rose Church 2501 Riverside Dr. on Mon. April 16, at 9:30 AM,” the obituary reads.
The school community has come together to remember Kyle Plush. Principal Patty Normile told WLWT-TV that “Kyle Plush was full of positive energy and despite sporting a back brace, an unstoppable athlete who loved soccer, tennis and swimming.”
“Kyle’s gentle spirit made it a joy for others to be around him; we lovingly remember Kyle as a creative, vibrant and kind young man,” she said to the television station.
A teacher told WLWT that Kyle was “independent, determined and thoughtful.”