Fla. Eighth-Grader Shot by Deputies Dies

[tocqueville]

By KELLI KENNEDY, Associated Press Writer
50 minutes ago

LONGWOOD, Fla. - A reportedly suicidal teenager who was shot by police while brandishing a pellet gun in his middle school has died of his injuries, his family's spokeswoman said Saturday.

Kelly Swofford, a neighbor who had been with the family all morning, stood outside their home and confirmed that 15-year-old Christopher Penley had died.

"They want to donate his organs because that is what Chris would want," Swofford said. "The family is devastated, just devastated."

Penley, of Winter Springs, was accused of pulling the pellet gun in a classroom Friday and pointing it at other students before forcing one into a closet, then leading deputies and SWAT team members on a chase that ended in a school bathroom.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060114/ap_on_re_us/school_evacuated
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obviously disarming somebody without killing him/her is an impossibility :sarcasm:

[TallahasseeGrannie]

1. A horrible tragedy

I'm not sure there is a way to disarm someone with a gun without killing them. (the pellet gun looked like a real gun)

At least I have read that.

[tocqueville]

3. how about shooting him in one leg

besides a cop knows how a pellet gun looks like

[PSPS]

4. The story said this was a lookalike with its orange tip painted over black

[TallahasseeGrannie]

11. Well, if you hit him in the leg, then what keeps him from

firing the gun?

My son has a pellet gun that looks just like a handgun to me.

I lived through a school shooting here in Tallahassee in 1989. It involved three hours of hiding my kids in a closet, lots of pants wetting and vomiting, and helpless feelings on my part...helicopters, stretchers, ambulances and a hearse. Obscene. It was in the school cafeteria which was full of K and first graders. I have never been the same.

I feel safer knowing the police will shoot to completely eliminate the possibility that gun could go off. I wish they had been there in our cafeteria that day in October.

[tocqueville]

12. in the movies they shoot back

take a bullet in a leg and you'll see, specially when you are 15 and have a pellet gun (which is only dangerous on very short range), you collapse and roll on the floor in pain

it works in all other countries, why not in the US ? I have even seen an adult disarmed that way in Sweden (live on TV armed with a shotgun and going after the cops yelling "gone get you bastards"...). Cops ought to be trained for that. They are in many European countries. Same story with the guy at the airport getting his bag...

Sorry, Grannie, I don't buy it. OK accidents can happen, even against A SWAT TEAM !!!

it's overkill as usual, no excuses

[TallahasseeGrannie]

14. Well I'm not going to argue

because I just don't know for sure. I have edited some court transcripts defending shoots and and read that once they use force they always go for the kill.

No, personally I'd think they could figure something out that was a bit more creative.

But I do know it was literally the absolutely most awful thing that ever happened to me. I ended up with panic disorder and taking half a year medical leave. A person with a gun who means to kill you is a scary, scary thing. In my case only one man was killed, but the shooter held the gun on the head of an aide, then ran out and shot into groups of children on the playground. He was at large for quite a white.

[1monster]

2. So where were those tazers that are supposed to be used in cases like

this?

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

5. Suicide by cop

it has been done before, and, sadly, will be done again. A real tragedy all the way around.

[cornermouse]

6. Advanced life support.

I figured organ donation was the reason.

[Sydnie]

7. "aiming at critical/center mass"

isn't that what they said after they shot the guy on the tarmack? Didn't they say they were trained to hit the vital organs?

This has to stop. They used to know how to "wing" a suspect not kill them.

[SmokingJacket]

8. His poor parents.

I can't even imagine their pain, don't want to.

[ulysses]

9. good god. n/t

[Nutmegger]

10. I can't imagine the pain the family must be going through

I know the technology exists to develop non-lethal weaponry.

[The Backlash Cometh]

13. Anyone here from Amnesty International?

I heard that the Seminole prisons were on their watch list years ago. This is very odd for the area, but I'm afraid it's symptomatic for the nation.

[flordehinojos]

15. i had not heard this news reported before as, "a suicidal teen"...

and in fact, the steps he took in the school were of the homicidal kind. why is the news now being reported as that of a, "suicidal teen"?