Posted on 01/05/2012 1:00:21 AM PST by Iron Munro
A teenager was shot dead by police today after brandishing a pellet gun in the hallway of his school.
Police say 15-year-old Jaime Gonzalez was holding a weapon that looked like a handgun, and refused to lower it when asked to by officers.
The two officers who shot the eighth-grader have been suspended while police carry out an investigation into his death.
The report which sent officers rushing to Cummings Middle School in Brownsville, Texas stated that a student had been seen holding a gun, according to the town's police chief Orlando Rodriguez.
Robert Valle, 13, was among the school's 750 students locked down in their classrooms during the confrontation. He said he heard police run down the hallway and yell 'put the gun down,' before several shots were fired.
'He had plenty of opportunities to lower the weapon and he didn't want to,' Mr Rodriguez said.
Two officers fired three shots, striking Gonzalez at least twice. He was taken to hospital and pronounced dead on arrival. The autopsy results are pending.
A police report stated: 'The weapon used by the suspect is a CO2 .177-calibre pellet pistol and is similar to a Glock type semi-automatic handgun.'
Before the confrontation with police, the teenager is reported to have walked into a classroom and punched another boy in the nose.
Gonzalez's godmother Norma Leticia Navarro said she couldn't imagine what led to the fatal confrontation.
'Jaime was not a bad kid, and I wish I could ask him why he did that, why did you put yourself in that position?'
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Help wanted, Taco Bell!
Have you always been an idiot, or did you have to take special classes?
15 year old 8th grader says a lot about the kid to begin with.
You,sir,are a ass.
Agreed. It’s a tragedy that the kid’s dead, but it’s a tragedy of his own making.
black magic markers
Back in the early 60s a buddy and I had very real looking plastic guns that shot rubber tipped darts. The barrel had a bright red tip. It took us about 30 seconds with a marker to paint them black. Never had a run in with the law, though.
First, we pulled the rubber safety suction cups off the darts. Then we found that you could load the dart and them pull it out and replace it with a pencil. For some reason, both of us still have our eyes.
Another thing I’ve always wondered is why bad guys don’t paint the tips of their guns orange. Then the cops would really have to pause before shooting. Don’t shoot, and they die. Do shoot, and it turns out they kill a guy or kid who really DID have a toy gun. The libs would be all over the cops.
The orange tip is useless.
Don seems to ba a parrot of a parent
I’m wondering if the kid was either hyped up on something, or had a mental problem. It might explain why he attacked a fellow student without provocation beforehand, not to mention why he refused to lower his “weapon” when confronted by police.
At any rate, sad case for all involved.
A .177 like that could kill or maim for life any number of his classmates or the staff around there.
This ain’t a case where the kid came to school with a pair of nail-clippers or even a pocket knife.
Cops did the right thing.
Why do I get the feeling that if you had kids in this school, and one of them was hurt or killed by this whack-job, you’d be screaming bloody murder about “Why didn’t somebody do something???”...
I would agree that cops sometimes, maybe too often, go too far, but your post is reprehensible.
Someone points that weapon at me they get shot PERIOD!
40 years ago I had a CO2 pellet gun for plinking cans. I made the mistake of using my house for a backstop, the pellets penetrated the wall.
I’m glad he didn’t have his dog with him.
This looks very real. Granted I am not even close to being a gun expert, but if this were pointed at me I would be scared.
Would only someone who was an expert on guns know it was not real?
No TOY guns have the colored tips. A pellet gun is not a toy or “harmless” like I have seen in other news reports on this incident.
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