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 ...
Clearly it was the kids fault.
RE: boys and their love affair with guns, my 3 boys would pick up sticks and pretend to shoot each other. I actually was rather careful about what they watched, but there seems to be a gene for attraction to guns in boys. We never let them have bb guns because that seemed pointless. They all got 22s when they were old enough. And they all learned to shoot. But we didn't want guns to be toys in any way. I'm sure alot of people think that's goofy, but it seemed reasonable.
susie
Although it has been many years since I read the novels and saw the early movies, I believe you are both correct with the Walther replacing the .25 Baretta.
http://www.cheaperthandirt.com/177_ec.htm
The above is a pellet gun.
Wake up.
As I said, I despise them.
I do think a comma might have helped hugh.
I know where you're coming from. I doubt this kids parents ever thought they'd be going through this.
Ever notice that all of these kids are quite and normal? I seem to recall that the kid in Kentucky and the two from Columbine were quiet and polite and normal.
It's amazing. You put a gun in the hand of a perfectly sane kid, and he turns into a hostage-taking, cold-blooded killer. /s off
God Bless his family. I guess they are devastated. I'm only happy that he didn't shoot anyone before he got shot. Even though it was a pellet gun, it could still kill.
Sounds as if he had clinical depression. I'm sure the parents will agonize over this for the rest of their lives. Very sad.
"Frankly, the kid was brain dead before the police shot him."
You have just described all too many students in the Sheeple's Republic of FloriDUH.
A teacher friend of mine, when I asked him about his students, replied "You talking about those things masquerading as humans who take up space in my classroom?"
He is one of the more talented, no - make that gifted, teachers I have met. But, with no consequences for asocial behavior, all too many students are doing a good job of impersonating "brute beasts of the field".
You're half right, my friend, and kudos to you for your knowledge of the Bond books! In the beginning, Bond preferred the Beretta, but several novels into the series, "M" made him give it up (due to its unreliability) and forced him to switch to the Walther PPK. Bond was pi**ed.
I believe the Beretta was this fellow's weapon of choice too:
Absolutely the right choice. Teach boys to use guns as tools, not toys. We even practice gun safety with toy guns here in our home.
Learning to shoot is a requirement for graduating from my homeschool.
Teen now Brain Dead
Yes, STILL brain dead. At least he didn't take an innocent life in the process. And for the bullying - cry me a river. I was bullied in school at that age, as were a lot of people. He - 100% himself - chose to go down this road. The only things tragic about this case would be: (1) the parents are likely going through the most testing period of their lives; and (2), whoever fired the shot is probably feeling really really bad. The hostage-taker got what he deserved.
Signed: Heartless SOB
Easy to see why Mel Gibson was voted People Mag's "Sexist Man Alive" back in that era.
A little off topic but I've always wondered what if a criminal painted bright orange on the tip of a real gun? Seems to me like the police would be concerned with whether or not the orange tip on any gun is really meaningful.
That's for sure! ;o)
Leni
My cop brother told me that he could care less whether or not the gun has an orange tip. If he orders someone to put down a weapon of any type and they choose not to, well, he's sure that HE is going home that night.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.