Posted on 01/15/2006 1:51:35 PM PST by 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.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
Give me a break. The kid new better than to take the gun to school. Call it what it was - suicide by cop. The minute the student pointed the gun at the cops he was toast. It was the correct call by the cops.
A pellet gun can maim or be lethal.
ping
Bull. If someone pointed a gun at you, and someone else you did not know told you it was fake, would you take that chance?
"I don't care what information they were given ahead of time, it doesn't mean its verified/validated. If some crazed punk pointed what looked like a Beretta 92FS at me I'd drop the hammer on him too."
Big Dittoes on that
Monday Morning Quarterbacking is easy. Being in the arena is hard. Lawyers can say anything they want after the fact, the cop has to find a way to go home at the end of the shift
Earlier article stated the police prevented the father from speaking with his son. I would like to know all the facts before I make a judgment on the police officers firing.
BTTT
I would trust the word of a cop over that of an ambulance-chasing shyster lawyer.....although it is a close call!
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. Remember Barney Fife. Sheriff Andy new about this tendancy and made him carry his bullet in his shirt pocket. Probably a pretty wise practice.
If the child were yours, what would you be saying?
That was Brandon Lee, son of Bruce Lee. He was killed with a real gun that was supposed to contain blanks. Instead, someone substituited real bullets for the blanks.
Well which one was it? Was it a real gun (a real pellet gun) or a fake gun (not capable of firing even a pellet)? Pellet guns are real guns and can kill people (including cops).
What I read said the kid put it to his own neck or head.
When Ralph Penley arrived at the school Friday to help police and school officials defuse the situation, he wasn't allowed inside
I think this would be a problem too.
If you killed a 13 or 14 year old child in exactly the same situation, you would be in jail on murder charges. End of story.
What a crock! Guy points a gun at a cop, guy dies. Guy points a gun a me, guy dies. It's very simple. Self defense is always grounds for lethal force.
Guy points a gun at you, assuming you're armed, I'll bet the guy dies then, too.
Cop-bashing with no reason just doesn't get it. Bash bad cops all you want. Don't bash cops who point a gun at them.
How did the father know it was fake? Father sees son painting gun to make it look real and doesn't ask some serious questions like "Why are you painting that gun to look real?"
Even though the father told the cop, cop had to judge the evidence at hand, which was that the kid had a real gun, because as we all know the fake guns have orange tips.
Brandon Lee, son of Bruce Lee, was killed by a prop gun during the filming of The Crow. Is that what you were thinking about?
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