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.
Me too.
Something doesn't smell right.
The kid took hostages but didn't shoot anybody.
One of Penley's classmates said he, too, thought the gun was real -- and that Penley was going to kill him -- until he grabbed the pistol and realized it was fake.
"He started to point the gun at me, so I started to grab for it and he pulled it away," Cotey told WKMG. "And then I grabbed for it one more time 'cause he pointed it at me for like a little while, so I grabbed it and I twisted it and I pointed it at him."
It was then that Cotey knew for sure the gun was a fake.
"While I was twisting it, it started to come apart like a toy gun would, like a dollar-store type toy," he said.
Cotey pointed the gun toward Penley's legs, but Penley kicked him into the closet, the 13-year-old said.
Cotey was able to get out of the closet and run out of the classroom. Penley already had gone and was running from a school resource deputy and others who were chasing him, Eslinger said.
Did Cotey also tell the police the gun was such a flimsy fake it was breaking apart?
Penley fled to an isolated alcove area and went into a restroom where he refused to speak with negotiators, the sheriff said.
Authorities pleaded with the boy inside the bathroom to put down his weapon, Eslinger said, but the boy refused.
Was Penley trapped and contained in the bathroom?
Yeah, I'd like to know a few more facts before calling this shooting justified.