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 ...
Even if someone did tell the cop that it wasn't real before he shot, is the cop supposed to assume that info is correct? The kid was obviously deranged. The gun looked real, and he pointed it at the cop.
Trigger happy cops. Just looking for an excuse to shoot someone, even a little kid.
"However, the fact that the father said that his son didn't have a real gun doesn't mean that he couldn't have actually had one."
Exactly, but expect the anti-gun nuts to sieze on that line of thought.
I agree with you.
This was predictable; it was only a matter of time before some ambulance-chaser figured out how to cash in on this tragedy.
It doesn't matter much if pop and brother tell the cops it isn't real. If he shows up on school grounds brandishing something that resembles the real deal, the cops have to presume it is and take him down. It's that simple.
Do you really believe that?
The cop on the scene may hear all kinds of opinions and speculations and must rely on his own observations.
Those cops have one primary job: Go home alive.
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.
I don't think so fluffy.
If the cop were your husband or son, I doubt you'd be saying this.
If the father knew the gun was fake, why didn't he walk up to the kid and take it? And if the father wasn't there how did he know exactly what the kid had with him?
Any idea what he was angry about? Maybe the cops told him that their guns are real?
If I was a cop in that situation, knowing the kid had pointed his weapon at other students and even holding a kid as a hostage, as some reports have said, there is no room for error.
If it had been a real gun, and they had assumed it was not based on what Dad said, and someone had gotten hurt, they would blame the cops.
It is a lose-lose situation for the cops.
Not to mention the fact that a few weeks ago where I live, a woman and her father got into a domestic dispute. When she threatened the life of her father (I think she had a knife or something; I can't remember her weapon), her 14 year old son shot her with a pellet gun.
The pellet pierced her heart, and she died.
The CNN article says that the teenager:
1. Painted the fake gun to look more like a real one.
2. Took a fellow student captive and pointed the gun at the captive's back, while the captive pled for his life.
3. Refused to put down the gun when told to do so by police, and pointed it at the SWAT team.
Wasn't there an actor that was killed with one of these kind of guns? If it shoots anything, it must be considered a lethal weapon.
Cops totally correct here.
Where does one find a cop. who wakes up in the morning, and thinks, "hey, let's shoot a kid?"
At that point, Dad had every reason to say whatEVER it would take to save his kid's life.
Police were right to ignore/doubt Dad at that point.
Best way to stay out of a situation like that is to not take fake firearms to school, for crying out loud.
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