I don't think so, Scooter.
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 ...
That is going back to the way things used to be. In more recent times the schools just promote them and finally push them out.
Hope your not my police officer protecting me!!!
Do what I do, protect yourself. If you ever have to depend on the police to save your life, you are probably as good as dead. And that's just the way it is. Read the newspapers and watch the news and see how many people get killed all the time.
Is that a fact? You'd have self-defense available to you and it would be up to a jury. But that wasn't the scenario here, was it? This deranged little brat pointed a gun at a cop. The only injustice is that a civilian would probably have to deplete his savings to defend himself while the cop will face a hearing. The only tragedy here is that anyone would have to defend their actions for shooting this nut case.
You point a gun at someone, the ultimate act of aggression (a.k.a.-"You asked for it, moron."), don't be surprised if you get shot.
From what I have read this sounds like a case of " Suicide by Cop". A very sad event, but police have mere seconds to make decisions involving deadly force. They must assume that any gun that does not have the obvious appearance of a toy is a weapon. They don't have times for could bes and maybes.
I agree, I think he wanted to die and knew that the police would shoot him when he pointed the gun at them.
Obviously, he had "issues." So, that begs the questions, since it appears the parents were aware of these "issues," why did he even have a realistic looking pellet gun?
Earlier, it was said the Police would not let him into teh school, an understandable move, I feel. Even if he did tell the Police "OUTSIDE" it was 'only a pellet gun' (which also can be lethal)did word of that reach the Officer standing before the kid?
Some replies here are ludicrous. If Police don't respond fast and strong enough, we run the risk of another Columbine. If they respond fast and strong and it turns out to be a 'pellet gun', even though very realistic, they get castigated by do gooders.
Before these people that condemn the Police so fast do so, maybe they should be the one responding to these calls and see how well they react, provided they survive the first one.
Police are as human as we are, they are not supermen with master psychology degrees for every situation.
You said it all in the first paragraph.
Along with my more lethal weapons, I also have a low velocity BB pistol that, to the untrained eye, could appear fairly realistic. It's slow enough I can actually see the BB fly through the air before it hits the racoons in my back yard (I only wish to scare them away, not kill them. Besides, neighbors get upset if I shot at them with a 30.06 or a .357). Still, it stings when it hit and from 20 feet away, it also left a real good sized dent in a stainless steel blowl I have in the backyard.
I have to imagine it could cause injury to a human also if I aimed and hit them right.
If I had a 13 or 14 year old point a gun at me and if I had a gun and felt my life was endanger yes I would shoot him.
Now if the DA decided to he could charge me with Homicide but I think a reasoned argument for self defense could be used. Especially if the 13 or 14 year old was behaving erratically (sp)
Bottom line if the cop says " put down the gun" you damn well better put the gun down or you have just upped the consequences a very big notch.
If you condemn the Police for shooting this armed kid, how do you expect to live with yourself if you ever had to defend yourself?
Oh what joy it is when we can give our days meaning.
Truly though I hope you never had to face the situation the police in Longwood did. And I thank you for your years of service.
Serious issues. Highlighting is mine.
Students at Milwee Middle School liked to bully Chris Penley.
"He never talks at school," said 14-year-old Mary Medlock. "You can poke him with a stick, and he won't talk."
His father, Ralph Penley, 49, a carpenter, pleaded no contest to aggravated assault in 1992 and was placed on probation, state criminal records show.
The teen returned to Milwee two weeks ago. He left last spring after he threatened to blow up a school bus and everyone on it, said Adrianne Medlock, who also is a school-district employee.
Fla. Teen Shot by SWAT at School Brain Dead
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."
Swofford said the boy had run away from home several times. Her 11-year-old son, Jeffery Swofford, said Penley had said he had something planned.
"He said `I hope I die today because I don't really like my life,"' Jeffery Swofford said.
They may show it differently on TV but the only way to assure another gunman is not going to be a threat to you is to kill him. I believe that is how SWAT and HRT members are trained. I may be wrong. I go by the old adage never pull a gun unless you are willing to shoot it and never shoot a gun unless you are willing to kill.
Maybe the father has more to do with this kids 'issues' than we realize?
Nearly all of us have had to deal with bullies at one time in our lives. Standing up to them by as many as you can muster worked for me.
Still, a father with an aggravated assault charge and what the neighbor says tells me this kids issues were set very early on and he chose a very sad, permanent and tragic way out.
I have three sons, (including a Chris), and I can't conceive the pain the Penley family must be feeling. My heart does go out to them. But Chris's history looks like a textbook case for a school shooter -- a loner, uncommunicative, angry. Threatens to blow up a bus. Father must have anger issues (history of aggravated assault). Problems in school. Suicidal.
If one of my children was in the school, if my child had the barrel of that pellet gun shoved in his back and forced into a closet, I would be livid if the authorities didn't take him seriously.
Yep. too bad fer Scooter.
Because no cop is going to let a civilian take charge of the situation.
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