911 operator suspended following teen's suffocation death in van will return to work

ByMARK OSBORNE ABCNews logo
Monday, April 16, 2018

The 911 operator who was placed on administrative leave following the death of an Ohio teen in a freak accident in which he was crushed to death in his van will return to work this week.

Cincinnati police spokesperson Tiffaney Hardy confirmed to ABC News that the operator will be back at work on Wednesday. The dispatcher was identified as Amber Smith.

Kyle Plush, 16, died on April 10 after he suffocated in the back seat of his Honda Odyssey minivan, according to police. His death was ruled as asphyxia due to chest compression after he was "trapped in the third-row bench seat," Hamilton County Prosecutor Joseph Deters said.

Plush made two 911 calls while trapped in the van. The first came at about 3:14 p.m. on Tuesday, when Plush said, "Help! I'm stuck in my van. ... I need help!"

An operator repeatedly asked Plush where he was, but the teen could not hear the dispatcher and wasn't able to answer the operator's questions, police said. According to the audio recordings of the 911 calls it appears as though Plush was using Siri, Apple's voice command system, to make the calls.

Police were dispatched to Seven Hills High School, where the teen said he was located, but authorities could not find him.

Plush called 911 again at 3:35 p.m. and Smith answered.

"I'm trapped inside my gold Honda Odyssey van in the ... parking lot of Seven Hills," Plush told 911, referring to his high school. "This is not a joke."

Information from the second 911 call was never relayed to police on the scene, authorities said earlier this week.

According to documents from an internal review obtained by Cincinnati ABC affiliate WCPO, Smith said she couldn't hear him.

Smith's supervisors called the fact that police were not radioed again "unacceptable," according to the documents obtained by WCPO. The documents also note the 911 operator was having computer problems at the time of the call and her screen had frozen.

Cincinnati Police Chief Eliot Isaac said the department still planned on doing a full investigation into the incident.

"We have had many requests from members of the media to talk about what happened to Kyle and what may happen next," Kyle's parents, Ron and Jill Plush, said in a statement Friday night. "We respect the media's need for information and we thank them for continuing to ask questions about what happened to Kyle, as we also have questions and want answers."

ABC News' Amanda Maile contributed to this report.

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