Posted on 01/14/2006 4:44:59 PM PST by Peace4EarthNow
LONGWOOD, Fla. - The 15-year-old boy shot by police while brandishing a pellet gun in a middle school bathroom was clinically brain dead Saturday but was being kept alive to harvest his organs, his family's attorney said.
Christopher Penley was expected to die Saturday night, said family attorney Mark Nation.
"His organs are in the process of being harvested," Nation told reporters outside a hospital.
Earlier, Kelly Swofford, a family spokeswoman and neighbor of the boy's parents Ralph and Donna Penley, said the boy had died and that the family was "devastated."
Penley, of Winter Springs, was accused of pulling the pellet gun in a classroom Friday and pointing it at other students before forcing one into a closet, then leading deputies and SWAT team members on a chase that ended in a school bathroom.
When he raised the gun at a deputy, a SWAT team member shot him, authorities said.
Officers who had responded to the 1,100-student school in suburban Orlando believed the gun was a Beretta 9mm, and didn't learn until after the shooting that it was a pellet gun.
Police had said Friday night that the boy was on "advanced life support." The hospital refused to release any information Saturday.
"Everybody in the whole neighborhood is really upset," Paul Cavallini, who lives across the street from the Penleys, said Saturday. "He was a quiet kid — polite and everything. He was just a normal teenager."
However, friends and investigators say he was also bullied and emotionally distraught, and went to school that day expecting to die.
Patrick Lafferty, a 15-year-old neighbor who has known Penley about six years, said he wasn't surprised by what happened. He said Penley was a loner who "told me he wanted to kill himself dozens of times."
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
A 15 year old 8th grader?
Kid didn't buy it alone, if he bought it. And parents are responsible for their children. It happened on school grounds. If there is a gun crime in Florida involving a minor resulting in death, the parents are liable. At least thats how it used to be.
Florida
What type of pellet gun is that?
Swat team for a single perp, with a hand gun might be called overreaction. I can just see it, lots of commands and yelling when a boys mother or the school counselor might have been the better choice, but once the government reaction has taken place, it would be hard if not impossible to turn off.
A sad case. All the more reason to keep kids and weapons in school, separated. Once he was in the bathroom with only one exit, the need for confrontation is over, and the calm negotiation can begin. Maybe it all fell apart on the initial response. Nothing like a good monday morning quarterback.
Not only that, it was a "pellet" gun.
Thanks.
I second...
I despise these "toy" guns that look real.
I've been bitching about this for years, knowing that some kid would get shot over one of them.
In this case it was suicide by cop, but I still despise these things.
I guess he flunked....twice.
Florida has a law regarding locking up firearms to keep them out of the hands of minors. I don't know if a pellet gun will count under that law or not. Interesting point of discussion.
I thought the same thing that you did. This is an awful situation for all concerned. I read the part in the article where it was said he was just a normal kid, and I thought no, no he isn't. Why couldn't he have just put the gun down when told to? Prayers for all.
I agree, and please, what "normal kids" do you know that try to hold classmates hostage and then point what looks like a high caliber semi-automatic at police officers?
If this is what passes for normal in their neighborhood, I'd suggest they look around for better surroundings.
"Normal" kids do not brandish weapons at their schools---pellet or otherwise. Excuse me---this is NOT a normal kid.
Where were this "normal" kid's parents????
A hobby called "Airsoft", like paintball, only with replica guns.
http://www.planetairsoft.net/
>>>Frankly, the kid was brain dead before the police shot him.<<<
Same thought crossed my mind...
There have been other cases of kids shot because a cop saw them with a fake or toy gun, and thought it was real. When my boys were growing up I completely disallowed any real looking toy guns (brightly colored plastic water pistols were ok). Our reasoning was that we had REAL guns in the house and we never wanted the kids to get the idea that anything like that was a toy. Some might think that's dumb, but it seemed reasonable to us.
susie
Sounds like fun if handled properly. It should be on commerical property where folks know what's going on.
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