Little boy, 8, beaten to unconsciousness at an Ohio elementary school, kills himself two days later

“I witnessed behavior that in my belief is bullying and could even rise to the level of criminal assault.”

A surveillance video at a Cincinnati elementary school reportedly shows an 8-year-old little boy getting kicked and beaten so badly that he lost consciousness. He ended up killing himself two days later.

New York Daily News reports that surveillance footage taken by a security camera inside Carson Elementary School, showed several children kicking and punching 8-year-old Gabe Taye in the boys’ restroom on January 24. The beating went on for around seven minutes while the little boy lay unconscious on the bathroom floor. Two days later, the child hanged himself from his bunk bed in his bedroom.

According to the boy’s family lawyer, Jennifer Branch, the school failed to tell the child’s mother that Gabe had been attacked. Instead, they told her that the boy simply fainted briefly without mentioning a word about the assault. Cincinnati Public Schools and Carson Elementary School declined to comment on the matter and refused to release the surveillance footage when requested by media.

The little boy’s suicide sparked a police investigation. Cincinnati homicide detective, Eric Karaguleff, sent an email on February 3 to the principal and assistant principal at Carson Elementary and sent a copy to Child Protective Services (CPS). Karaguleff wrote that he viewed the surveillance footage on February 1 and was alarmed at what took place.

“I saw some concerning events, and I don’t even have a child at that school.”

Karaguleff explained that he saw a young boy with “with dyed hair sorta O’Dell Beckham Jr. style,” enter the restroom. Several kids immediately fled. The child with the Beckham Jr. hairstyle stopped one of the kids from leaving and punched him so hard in the stomach that the boy fell down on all fours.

“I witnessed behavior that in my belief is bullying and could even rise to the level of criminal assault.”

A few minutes later, Gabe walks in the restroom and tries to shake hands with the bully, in an attempt to get him to stop bullying the child on the floor. In turn, the bully reportedly slammed Gabe so hard against the wall that he fell unconscious. The bully, according to Karaguleff, “appears to celebrate and rejoice in his behavior” as Gabe lay motionless. Several other children who walked into the restroom joined in and began kicking and striking Gabe.

Assistant principal Jeff McKenzie found Gabe in the restroom and took him to the school nurse.

Gabe’s mother, Cornelia Reynolds, took the boy to the hospital when he returned home in the afternoon and vomited twice, but he didn’t tell his mother what transpired at the school.

“If the school had told her what had happened to him in the bathroom, that he was unconscious for such a long period of time, she would have taken him to the hospital immediately, reported that to the medical professionals, and she would have the called police,” said Branch.

Two media outlets, Enquirer and WLWT, were denied access to the surveillance footage. The Enquirer is currently appealing the school’s decision.

The story is still developing. Check back with Crime Online as additional details become available.

[Feature Photo: Handout]