Worried neighbors kept calling 911, now 7-year-old boy is dead

There were dozens of complaints. No one apparently did anything to intervene. Now, a child is dead.

Breyson Plummer, 7, died this month after being shot in the head at a Fort Lauderdale home that was routinely where police were being summoned for help.

But authorities have failed to release many of the basic records about the child’s death, other than to say said there were no adults in the room when the gun went off July 2. The boy was in a room with a 5-year-old child, as well as an 11-year-old, when he was shot in the head.

The Florida Department of Children and Families and the Broward Sheriff’s Office, which in Broward is the investigative arm of the state’s child welfare department, have provided no details or records.

Those two agencies, along with Fort Lauderdale police, won’t discuss what neighbors call numerous missed opportunities to help Breyson. Fort Lauderdale police officers, as first responders, are required to notify child protective investigators if they feel a child is in danger, state law requires.

Records of the dozens of 911 calls to Breyson’s home offer to date the best glimpse yet at what law enforcement and child protective workers knew or possibly missed before Breyson died.

Records show an elderly man on May 6 called police to voice his concerns about cars constantly pulling up to the home, where he believed drugs were sold all night long. The following

day, there was a similar call from yet another person, followed by another call, this time a caller saying a gun just went off at the house that he, too, believed was a drug house.

On May 8, a child protective worker went to Breyson’s home to investigate. The worker, as well as an officer with the Fort Lauderdale police, were told no children live at the home. That wasn’t true and now less than two months after the investigator and police officer were turned away, Breyson is dead.

Those May phone calls to police were followed by dozens of others, including the 26 phone calls in one day that police received in June because of a party at Breyson’s home. It was so big, people could not get down the road.

The May 8 home visit also not the first time a child protective worker went to Breyson’s home.

A year ago, a child protective worker as well as a Fort Lauderdale police officer went to Breyson’s home to see if he and other children were being properly cared for.

This July 17, 2019, visit came after a tipster called to say that about 12 unsupervised children were living in the home, a place the tipster believed was rife with marijuana, but lacked the basics like food and electricity, a police report says.

The child protective worker and police officer were told by Breyson’s mom, Rachel Plummer, that Breyson lived there with his sibling as well as her two teenage sisters and her mother, Michelle Harden, according to police records.

A Fort Lauderdale police officer wrote in his report that the home was relatively clean, that it did not smell of marijuana and there were enough beds in the fourbedroom home for the six people he was told lived there.

The police officer also noted that the home had food and electricity. The case was closed.

Not counting the 26 times in one day that people called about a party, the county’s 911 center generated some 82 police calls from people calling to report problems at the home where Breyson lived, records show.

But one call would prove to be too late. At 9:30 a.m. July 2, one of Breyson’s aunts frantically called 911 and explained how she was asleep in another room when she heard the jarring blast of a gun. Breyson died a few days later.

Whether Breyson shot himself or if it was one of the other children who pulled the trigger, has not been made public. What is known is people were so concerned about what was going on in the home that police were called repeatedly.

Neighbor Cal Miller said he called child-protective services twice, the first time in March when South Florida went into lockdown to stop the spread of the new coronavirus.

At one point in March, a party at Breyson’s home on 1529 NW Second Ave. swelled to 80 to 100 people, Miller said.

The way Miller recalled it, no one had a mask. People were drunk. Cars were everywhere. And so were children. Miller said he was told there was nothing that could be done about it.

Miller called police on May 7 to report that he heard a gun go off. He checked his Ring doorbell app and it caught the commotion next door. Miller said he saw a police officer roll up to the house and then quickly move on. He said he called child protective services again.

Records from the the Fort Lauderdale Police Department reveal that a police officer and a child protective worker went back to the house the following day to ask about the gun going off and check on the welfare of children living at the home. A police report says Breyson’s aunts told them that no small children lived at the home.

Another family member told the investigators that she and her sister were pulling out of the driveway when the bullet hit their car. They didn’t wish to make a big deal of it, a police report says.

Notes in the police report say investigators would attempt to make contact with the mother of the young woman the investigators spoke with.

Because child welfare records have not been released, it is unknown if there was any follow-up so investigators could see first hand or hear otherwise that children, such as Breyson, were living in the home.

In June, there were more calls to police, 20 to be exact.

“This is a drug house,” a caller told a dispatcher on June 14. The same type of call came in twice on June 27, and then again on June 28, when the caller said the home was a drug house and people were fighting.

Almost all the calls in the last month of Breyson’s life were about disturbances at Breyson’s home.

“I don’t care what the adults do but if there are children that are there and somebody needs to be protecting them,” Miller said. “You cannot have kids in the yard with guns going off.”

Miller has broken down and cried thinking about Breyson’s short life and death. He tried to get someone to help, he said.

Brenda Lowary spent the summer getting to know Breyson last year as a teacher at an enrichment program he was enrolled in. His death has has hit her hard. She believes the child was failed by many.

“When you get all these calls [to the police] when does someone say, ‘Wait.‘”

She is troubled to hear that Breyson’s aunt would say no children live at the home. But at the same time she is troubled if there wasn’t follow-up investigation.

“Everyone needs to take responsibility,” Lowary said. “Are you still not going to connect the dots?”