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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.

Yeah, I'd like to know a few more facts before calling this shooting justified.

I need more facts before I call it un-justified. The presence of weapons (BB guns and firearms) contributed.

Has anyone thought about the fact that we used to prohibit armed officers in our schools? This will be litigated for years. Bottom line: teach your children better conflict resolution than taking a (bb) gun to school. Zero tolerance will bring more of this.

Exactly. When, in the sequence of events, did the father tell the police the gun was fake? Who did he tell, 911 operator or police on the scene? What type of command and control was established? What was the young boy saying, was he making threats, shouting, etc? Can't make a judgment on the officer's firing until all questions are answered. Unfortunately, our press publishes statements such as "The Father told the police the gun was not real" implying that statement should have ended the standoff and paints the police in a negative light. It may well be that the police made a mistake and should not have fired but right now it is too early to make that determination.