Posted on 01/14/2006 4:56:43 AM PST by Chanticleer
LONGWOOD -- A Milwee Middle School eighth-grader, who last year threatened to blow up a school bus, showed up for class Friday with a pistol in his backpack.
However, classmates of Chris Penley, 15, didn't know it was a pellet gun.
Neither did a veteran Seminole County deputy sheriff, who made a split-second decision to open fire when Chris pointed the weapon at him, authorities said.
The deputy's single shot gravely wounded the boy, who was on life support Friday at Orlando Regional Medical Center.
(Excerpt) Read more at orlandosentinel.com ...
Roger that.
The eighth-grader shot by SWAT team member Friday at a Seminole County middle school will die tonight, an attorney representing the family announced today.
At a press conference at Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children & Women, Longwood attorney Mark Nation announced Chris Penley, 15, is still alive, but the hospital plans to harvest his organs and he will most likely die tonight.
Sad.
Family has a trial attorney. I wonder if this is just beginning.
I heard on FOX that he already had died...
sad indeed...
I realize these parents are devastated and greiving...but the OFFICER is the LAST man on the list of those to blame....
I once had a child hide in the woods next to our house and point a rifle at my son (he was in 3rd grade) as he got off the bus...
If I had had a gun on me at that moment- that child would have been shot. Point a gun at ANYONE- I shoot and ask questions later-
It turned out that this rifle was a bee-bee gun, but I had no way of knowing that. This child had sever problems- the officer was protecting himslef and the other people present... he did not come to psychologically analyze the kid and give him counseling....
sounds cruel- but these people wanna play with guns- they better be ready to play for keeps.....
PERIOD.
His parents, friends, neighbors and school officials all seemed to know this young man needed help. The time to stop the tragedy was long before he aimed a gun at a deputy. I am so terribly sorry for the family and the community for this sad loss, but I agree that it doesn't appear that the deputy deserves to receive the blame.
Tough being a cop these days...you get stuck deposed and grilled and tried and suspended and maligned no matter what you do...or don't do. All it takes is a family looking for blame anywhere else but where it belongs, megabuck disease, and a caveman lawyer with a rap and a yacht payment to make. Totally sucks.
....and courts that brook this nonsense.
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