Database to Help Searches for Non-Verbal Residents
Written by Ryan LangIn the wake of Monday's search for missing 2-year-old Kaven Fisher, Summit County Prosecutor Sherri Bevan Walsh is reminding residents about their "Take Me Home" program.
It's a countywide initiative meant to support residents with difficulty communicating, such as Kaven who has autism and is non-verbal. The program consists of an easily seachable database that provides law enforcement defining characteristics of individuals who meet certain criteria.
See more from the Prosecutor's Office below:
(Summit Co. Prosecutor) The Take Me Home program is a countywide initiative to support individuals with communication difficulties and their families. The integral component of the program is a database of individuals with disabilities that impact their ability to communicate. The database is only accessible to law enforcement personnel.
Should an individual become lost or separated from caregivers, law enforcement personnel can search the database by inputting the individual’s name, phone number or physical characteristics in the hopes of learning their identity and thus reuniting them with their family or caregivers.
Prosecutor Sherri Bevan Walsh and Sheriff Drew Alexander announced the initiative in April 2007 at a park where a five-year-old child with autism had gotten lost a year before. The child was unable to communicate his name or address to law enforcement officers.
That troubling incident, however, highlighted the challenge that law enforcement personnel and parents face when individuals with disabilities become lost. The Greater Akron Chapter of the Autism Society of America brought the Take Me Home program to the attention of Prosecutor Walsh. Bob Haren, the grandparent of a child with autism, brought it to the attention of the Sheriff's Office. A partnership was formed.
The Louisville Police Department has canceled the earlier Missing Adult Alert for 82-year-old Barbara Tschantz. She has reportedly been found safe.
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The Louisville Police Department has issued a statewide Missing Adult Alert for 82-year-old Barbara Tschantz.
According to the report, Ms. Tschantz was last seen leaving her sister's home in Youngstown 10 o'clock Monday morning, and hasn't been heard from since.
She's driving a 2010 Chevy Malibu with license plate HOPE25.
See more below:
Rain or shine, Keep Akron Beautiful, along with more than 250 volunteers, was all in for the annual Earth Day Clean Up at Summit Lake!
"It was awesome to have that many people come out, especially because it was cold and rainy," Community Outreach and Program Manager Johanna Barnowski told our 1590 WAKR newsroom of the event.
On Saturday alone, Barnowski tells us that as a group they collected roughly 3.31 tons of trash, and pulled 18 tires from Summit Lake!
"Old bikes that were rotted, some pipes, tires, and all kinds of things," Barnowski elaborated, giving us an idea as to just some of the items the group pulled from the lake. "This year, I'm actually happy to say that we didn't have anything that crazy pulled out of the lake, considering in the past we've had a loaded gun..."
There is still time to participate in Clean Up Akron Month! You have until Friday, April 26th, to sign up yourself or a group to clean up a piece of Akron. See more KeepAkronBeautiful.org.
Update: The Summit County Sheriff's Office is reporting that missing 2-year-old Kaven Fisher was found safe.
According to Sheriff's Inspector Bill Holland, Kaven was asleep inside of a car parked in the neighbor's garage.
As of a 9 a.m. briefing, Inspector Holland said that Kaven was being checked out, but appears to be OK.
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Summit County Sheriff's Inspector Bill Holland provided an update to the media early in the 8 a.m. hour Monday, saying that well over one hundred law enforcement and fire personnel are involved in the search for missing 2-year-old Kaven Fisher.
In his briefing, Inspector Holland suggested that area residents assist law enforcement by searching their own properties, including inside their own homes, noting that there have been cases where a child has gotten into a home without the homeowner knowing.
As of the 8 a.m. press briefing, Inspector Holland said that the search radius was about a mile, but will expand beyond that as the morning goes on.
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The Summit County Sheriff's Office is reporting a missing 2-year-old autistic boy from the City of Green, near Clinton, OH.
Reports from Channel 8 News are that Kaven Fisher went to bed at his home about 9:30 Sunday night.
His parents called 911 when they checked his room about 1:30 this morning and he was not in his room and that a door to the home was open. Kaven was reportedly last wearing a gray shirt and red shorts. Kaven is listed at 55 pounds, about 43 inches tall, black hair, and brown eyes.
According to the press release from the Sheriff's Office, in addition to having autism, Kaven is non-verbal.
The search is ongoing, reportedly in the area of the Nimisila Reservoir near Killinger and Chistman Roads.
Anyone with information is asked to call the Summit County Sheriff's Office at 330-643-2181.
This Week in Tech with Jeanne Destro-4-19-19 Featured
Written by Jeanne Destro
This week, how Amazon Alexa may be spying on you, and how companies like Facebook and a big, well-known government contractor, are using artificial intelligence. (**Please note: You can subscribe to this program as a podcast on your Apple or Android device. In addition, you can find it through apps including Stitcher, Podbean, and Spotify.)
The Summit County Sheriff's Office is investigating a deadly crash along East Turkeyfoot Lake Road in the City of Green Thursday morning.
According to the Sheriff's report, around 7:30 a.m., a 71-year-old man driving a yellow Corvette eastbound on East Turkeyfoot collided with a tractor trailer that was waiting to turn into a gas station, and then hit another car.
The driver of the Corvette, a 71-year-old resident of Green, was transported to Summa Akron City Hospital where he was later pronounced dead. Neither the driver of the truck nor the driver of the Civic were injured.
East Turkeyfoot Lake Road was closed for roughly three hours after the accident Thursday morning.
Investigators with the Sheriff's Office do not suspect that alcohol played a factor in the accident.
More...
An Akron Police cruiser that was escorting a funeral procession along Darrow Road, just a block from the Newcomer Funeral Home, was hit by another driver, according to police.
The officer had to be extracted from the cruiser, and was taken to Akron City Hospital with non-life threatening injuries. The other driver, a 21-year-old woman, had minor injuries, and was cited for several violations, including driving under a suspended license.
See the full release from the Akron Police Department below:
(APD) Accident involving cruiser doing a funeral escort:
Shortly before 2:00pm this afternoon, an officer in a marked cruiser was doing a funeral escort for the Newcomer Funeral Home, located at 131 North Canton Road. As the procession drove north bound on Darrow Road, about a block north of the funeral home, the cruiser was struck by a Chevy Malibu driven by a 21 year old female from Dudley Street in Akron. The officer was confined, due to the damage of the cruiser. The officer was removed from the cruiser and transported to Akron City Hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
The 21 year old female driver and her passenger where transported to Cleveland Clinic Akron General with non-life threatening injuries. The driver was cited for left turn approaching traffic, driving on a suspended driver’s license, and right of way for a funeral procession. The driver also had a warrant for driving on s suspended license from Copley Police Department.
Summit County Approves North American First People's Day
Written by Jeanne DestroLike the City of Akron did last year, now--Summit County has designated the first Monday of October, "North American First People's Day".
It comes after sustained efforts by students and teachers at The Lippman School in Akron, which has a long-standing cross-cultural partnership with the Northern Cheyenne Nation.
Ray Horner talked to Sam Chestnut, Lippman's Head of School, and their Curriculum Director, Matt Russ, about it today.
(Summit County Sheriff's Office) In February of this year the Summit County Sheriff’s Office responded to a breaking and entering that occurred at a storage facility in the City of Green. An enclosed trailer (valued at over ten thousand dollars) had been stolen and this crime mirrored other crimes that had been occurring in different areas of Summit County.
Sheriff’s detectives began their investigation (assisted by information provided from Sheriff’s Deputy Mike Jones) and soon developed suspects with Detectives Jason Kline and Brian Breeden working various night and day hours to confirm the information they had received. Soon they developed suspects involved in several burglaries and thefts. The property taken in these incidents usually involved vehicles, boats, trailers and construction equipment, including a heavy duty Earth Mover, snow plows and power tools.
On April 3, 2019, suspect Jerry Stubblefield, 48, of Hunter Avenue, Munroe Falls, Ohio, was arrested and charged with 3 counts of Breaking and Entering, 5 Counts of Felony Theft, and Possession of Drugs-Methamphetamine. Suspect Jeremy Harnack, 39, of Gage Street in Akron, was arrested and charged with 3 Counts of Breaking and Entering and 3 Counts of Felony Theft. Suspect Mark Harkless, 52, of The Brooklands, Akron, was charged one count of Felony Theft and all have been booked into the Summit County Jail. Additional charges will also be addressed at Grand Jury.
Over one hundred thousand dollars worth of stolen property has been recovered over the past several weeks, with cases being cleared in several areas of the county. Sheriff Barry credits his deputies and entire detective bureau, along with the assistance provided by the Akron, Boston Heights, and Tallmadge Police Departments and the Portage County Sheriff’s Office.