Lawyer: Authorities were told student's gun was fake

CNN ^ | 1/14/06 | CNN

[wagglebee]

LONGWOOD, Florida (CNN) -- The father and brother of a teenager shot at school Friday while brandishing a pellet gun told authorities before an officer opened fire that Christopher Penley's gun was not real, the family's attorney said Saturday.

The eighth-grader is clinically brain dead and being kept on life support to harvest his organs, attorney Mark Nation said.

When Ralph Penley arrived at the school Friday to help police and school officials defuse the situation, he wasn't allowed inside, Nation said.

Nation said Ralph Penley was "angry" because he had spoken to police before he arrived at the school and told them Christopher did not have a real gun. Christopher's younger brother told school officials the same thing, Nation said.

[Squantos]

Awww go ahead an blame Patton......it's fun !

[AmericanVictory]

fake or real, it appeared real enough to the teacher the kid held hostage and who begged for his life ..... funny how fast the grieving family lawyered up, isn't it ?

[fieldmarshaldj]

This would've been a mighty short thread until that troll decided to poop in the punch bowl.

[JCEccles]

These small town cops receive training about gun battles, terrorists, etc. They almost never get a chance to pull out their gun and fire it. So when their chance finally does arrive, they tend to be trigger happy ... Remember Barney Fife.

Yes, I remember Barney Fife. He was a sitcom character played by actor Don Knotts.

[pepperdog]

I remember that case, she was a druggie on parole, her father and mother had been raising her kids and had given the boy a pellet gun for Christmas. She was allowed to visit on Christmas day and came to the house high, attacked her elderly father and the kid shot her to protect his grandfather. Personally I think he did society a favor.

[benjibrowder]

Son, that may work in Hollyweird. In real life, the cop aims at center mass. Sometimes, when aiming at center mass, the round goes high. I know they go high, which is why I'm not saying the cop should have not shot the kid at all. If that was the case, then it was the case. There's nothing nobody can do about it, and the cop tried. But the idea of intentionally shooting a teen in the head doesn't sit well with me, regardless of whether the kids intentions were suicide or school slaughter. The cop did what he had to do. I feel sorry everyone involved.

[patton]

I need tp for my cornholio.

[Steamburg]

***Yep, patton, for 19 years I woke up every day saying, "This is the day I will finally ruin my life and reputation and my family's lives and reputations and take out some random kid. All I need is an excuse, dammit!"***

You hit that one right on the head. Its time they stop using stereotypes to explain the human crisis that confronted those officers and the limited choices they had.

[BeHoldAPaleHorse]

"funny how fast the grieving family lawyered up, isn't it ?"

Nope, they just bought themselves a ticket to the Lawsuit Lotto!

[Candor7]

Mine: In this case he or they were wrong..."

Yours: "No, they weren't. This was not a fake gun. It was a pellet gun, and they can kill."

No SWAT officer in body armor need worry about being killed by a pellet gun. A pellet wouldn't even nick his lexan face shield.

I am speaking from the perspective of the officer who shot the kid. If he knew it was a pellet gun he would not have fired. The gun was not pointed at another student to do grevious bodily harm. The officer saw a firearm, and he responded the way he was trained, a pre-emptive shot straight to the head, no trigger finger reflex that way, immediate collapse.He was justified.

That officer will wonder for the rest of his life whether he could have seen the difference of the air hand gun if he was say, more calm, or less rattled, or more free thinking rather than trained. He will have a tendency to distrust his training now, as a SWAT officer.That is the wrong I was speaking of, and even if the officer is in the right, which I think he is, he himself will feel wrong, no matter what the law says, because he would not want to shoot a kid.

Whoever called the shot live was wrong in fact in these circumstances, but perfectly justified.If they had perceived that it was a pellet gun, they would not have fired, while your conclusion is mistaken, they they should have fired even if they knew it was a pellet gun.

[pepperdog]

"Don't take your gun to town son"

[Dustbunny]

If the police new the gun was fake, there is a real problem. However, the fact that the father said that his son didn't have a real gun doesn't mean that he couldn't have actually had one.

Exactly !!!

I also smell the family taking advantage of a possible huge lawsuit settlement.

[fieldmarshaldj]

It's a good point. This kid was looking for trouble, he got it, and now he's dead. And I very much hope the cops involved, who put their lives on the line each and every day, don't see their careers ruined. With all the Monday-morning quarterbacking going on around here, they might consider what would happen if police opted to stop doing their jobs altogether. No one forces anyone to be a police officer.

[Concho]

First, comprehend that image percieved is image achieved. The kid changed the gun from the red b-b gun muzzle to a black real appearing muzzle.

Second, as I previously posted, this was a SWAT team. These are the guys who have no sense of humor. They are trained to the nth degree to put an end to these sorts of situations. They are not beat cops. They train every day for these sorts of situations. If you dont want to answer to them, then dont create the appearance of a situation which attracts them.

The kid got what he asked for.

[Paulus Invictus]

Of course, it's CNN putting its wonderfully obvious liberal slant to everything. Their real message: "cops are killers and here's more proof"

[benjibrowder]

"Finally, the boy came out of the bathroom and 'raised the firearm in a tactical position and pointed it' at a SWAT team member, who 'decided to use deadly force,' Eslinger said." Welp, now we know the truth. Supernatural thought he did (which he probably didn't, and to some extent neither did I.)

[vpintheak]

That is the dumbest, most lieberal, idiot thing I have heard today. I hope that was sarcasm. That is pure sickness otherwise. Just as the lieberals and commies called and call our soldiers murderers and worse, so that comment does the same to the police. It is: I hate the Police, therefore all poilce are homicidal maniacs looking for an excuse to kill. Ridiculous!

[jude24]

I don't think I said shoot the gun out of the hand. If a cop did that, it would be far too reckless, and the guy would have to be a better shot than a sniper.

Fair enough. You suggested he shoot his shoulder, and so knock the gun out of his hand from the force of the .45 impact. A little more plausible - unless the guy reflexively grips the gun.

You also said, "Also, I thought cops wore kevlar under their uniforms.. True - but kevlar does not protect against armor piercing bullets, and few cops have their head protected.

All in all, it was a clean shoot. The only person to blame for this tragic situation was the kid who decided to bring a gun to school and take a hostage. This was a reasonably foreseeable outcome of the kid's own actions. He brought this on himself.

[gridlock]

If the police new the gun was fake, there is a real problem.

There is a big difference between being told that a gun is fake and "knowing" the gun is fake. In the field, the officer must rely on all the information he has. He may or may not have be notified of the statements by the family members, but his own eyes were telling him that the gun was real.

It wasn't even close to looking like a toy. An officer looking at that gun is going to conclude "real gun" every day of the week.

[Dustbunny]

If the father knew the gun was fake, why didn't he walk up to the kid and take it? And if the father wasn't there how did he know exactly what the kid had with him?

Ditto to that !!!!