An Ohio 911 operator is facing a wrongful death lawsuit after a police car ran over a shooting victim who was lying in the street.

The Clark County Sheriff’s Office dispatchers had a busy night on June 13, 2021. They received these calls in less than an hour:

• Shots were fired at Sunoco gas station
• A woman reported that her ex-boyfriend, “TR Cole,” was threatening her with a gun
• Shots were fired on High Street
• Another call came in about Cole threatening to shoot at a house
• Eight shots fired by a suspect named “Pee” on Liberty Street
• Twenty shots fired
• Unintelligible screaming by the caller
• Caller heard shots down the street

After all of these calls, Eric Cole called and said he had been shot in the arm. He said he was about to die in the middle of the street.

Cole reported his location at 1407 S. Center Blvd. However, dispatcher Erin Reynolds thought he said 414 S. Center Blvd.

Dispatcher Mary Herge took over the call. She typed into the computer: “HE IS OUTSIDE IN THE MIDDLE OF THE STREET.”

Herge did not convey this information over the police “because she was still on the line with Cole and believed that the information on Cole’s location was automatically transmitted to the responding police units,” according to the appeals court.

Herge then had this conversation with Cole:

“They just hit me.”

“Who hit you?”

“Police.”

“The police hit you?”

“Yeah.”

Officer Amanda Rosales testified that while she was driving, she was looking for the address and a possible shooter, not at the road. She said the correct location was not announced on the radio.

Cole eventually died from blunt force trauma to the torso.

His estate sued the Springfield Police Department for wrongful death, along with Reynolds, Herge, and Rosales.

The individual defendants claimed that they were protectd by political subdivision immunity. However, the trial court denied the motion.

They appealed, and the Ohio Court of Appeals overturned the decision regarding Herge and Rosales, ruling that they did not act recklessly.

However, the court reached a different conclusion regarding Reynolds. Cole’s statement that he was in the street was “clearly audible,” according to Judge Mary Katherine Huffman.

“Reynolds did not act wantonly. However, we conclude that genuine issues of material fact precluding summary judgment remain regarding whether Reynolds’ conduct was reckless,” she wrote.

These issues include whether Reynolds was responsible for attaching the call to the police car’s computer system and for telling police over the radio that Cole was in the street.