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.

[benjibrowder]

One has to ask, if the Dad KNEW it was a pellet gun, why did he allow the kid to take it to school?

Exactly. Perhaps a countersuit is in order.

Perhaps the dad was lying?

[Supernatural]

Won't be me. I didn't kill anybody, innocent or otherwise.

[Horatio Gates]

I don't think the police ever use stun guns when they believe the perp is armed

If you're talking about tasers then it depends on what the suspect is armed with. Firearms never. If you have a stand-off with someone wielding a knife or impact type weapon not actually engaging you then a taser can be deployed but the officer using the taser should always have another back-up officer ready with a firearm. They don't always work as intended

[benjibrowder]

Thanks.

[TigersEye]

I do understand that and agree with you. I don't know what I said to make you think differently!??? I would expect the same from any cop, not just SWAT team cops though.

[zahal724]

I would say the top one is the real gun because I think I can see an itty bitty serial number on it.
It's unfortunate that supernatural thinks this about cops. Of course some are bad, but there are bad people in most professions.

[Concho]

T E,

I dont think that you said anything, I was just reading the big picture and cliked on reply, and you must have been last. Nothing personal.

[Irene Adler]

"This was a small town. 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."

How does necessarily being trigger happy follow from your perceptions of small town police? I have to assume that small town police are more or less like other people. That is, they vary all over the map.

" Remember Barney Fife. Sheriff Andy new about this tendancy and made him carry his bullet in his shirt pocket. Probably a pretty wise practice."

Barney Fife was a fictional character created for a humorous television program. What does that prove?

[Horatio Gates]

We had a neighboring agency that just went thru the "pulled a fake gun and got shot" scenario after a three county pursuit last week. It wasn't a teenager as far as I know that was shot

[TigersEye]

That is what I thought, regarding firearms. I didn't think of knives and other hand weilded weapons until after I posted. Thank you.

[Chanticleer]

I went to high school in Longwood, so I've been following the story. It is so tragic. There are some older articles linked here.

[ishabibble]

>>>What if the child who was killed by the police was your child?<<<

I think that this rhetorical question is some very serious emotional guilt and not at all related to your first comment, a quick jab at the cop who is now living with the fact that he killed a child with a toy gun.

You weren't there. What you offered was nothing more than a cheap shot at cops, but OK, here goes:

If my child had done something like this, taken a hostage, and pointed a pretty good copy of a 9mm at a SWAT Team, I'd be a heartbroken mother tonight, but I sure wouldn't be blaming anybody but my kid.

[Candor7]

Its a tragedy anyway we cut it. I'd hate to be that police officer, who will replay the shoot over and over and over and over and over in his head, to see if he missed someting.

I feel sorry about the kid , but he made some bad choices that cost him his life, and the parents somehow helped create the kid to be that way.

I feel the most sorrow for the shooter.

Police Officers are like sheepdogs, if they lose a lamb it brings haunted nightmnares and terrible mental suffering.

[Candor7]

Its a tragedy anyway we cut it. I'd hate to be that police officer, who will replay the shoot over and over and over and over and over in his head, to see if he missed something.

I feel sorry about the kid , but he made some bad choices that cost him his life, and the parents somehow helped create the kid to be that way.

I feel the most sorrow for the shooter.

Police Officers are like sheepdogs, if they lose a lamb it brings haunted nightmnares and terrible mental suffering.

[TigersEye]

I see. Sometimes it's hard to tell. No problems.

[moondoggie]

I suppose some smart attorney is going to argue that the dad and brother should have been allowed to try and identify the firearm to be sure Chris hadn't gotten his hands on a "real" gun?

In fluid situations, there isn't always time for a 'family gathering'.

The police acted appropriately, IMO.

[teenyelliott]

There was a hostage at the time of the shooting?

I don't think so. Everything that I have read read is that the kid briefly took a hostage in a classroom, but when he was in the bathroom, he was alone.

[paulat]

What if the child who was killed by the police was your child? What would you be saying then?

I'd be saying, I failed my child. I wasn't paying attention. I let my child threaten the life of a cop with a family.

[teenyelliott]

As far as I know, most cops who kill anyone, kid or not, gets emotional about taking another person's life.

Certainly the child, and to some extent his parents, were to blame here, not the cop.

[albee]

"If the child were yours, what would you be saying?

I'll never know because I didn't raise any stupid children and, as a gun owner, taught them never to point a gun at anyone, even if it "isn't loaded"!