Brownsville, Tx: Police kill armed teenage student at Texas school.

[Coldpizza]

If you have a short time to make a decision it's not so easy to figure out if it's a pellet gun or not. It might be impossible to figure out from a distance anyway. Look at some photos of pellet guns and then do tell if you could figure out if they were pellet guns or handguns.

Okay ok ok, I posted without having any knowledge and I have calmed down a bit.

Thank you all for letting me rant, I promise to be more informed before I post when I can.

I always feel terrible when a young life is gone too soon.

 

[angelmom]

If you taser someone who has their finger on the trigger they are going to SHOOT WILDLY.

The cops and all of the school staff has Columbine on their minds. It is in their subconscious and it is a huge fear that they all carry with them. They are not going to use a taser on someone who has a deadly weapon in their hands because they know that the person with the weapon plans on using it, imo.

And yes, I am making an assumption. But it is also an educated guess. You do not get the chance to stay in the 8th grade at age 15 unless you are choosing to do so by being truant or being expelled a lot. If it was a matter of a learning disability the school would work with the student and move them on by using a specially designed learning program. They would not force a child to stay in 8th grade for 2 years because of a LD.

And none of the students would dare bully a 15 yr old. They might snicker behind his back. But a 15 yr old is much stronger, scarier than any of the 13 yr olds around them.

While I totally agree with you about the taser and LE, I do want to point out that 15 is only one year behind, not two. Kids who start kindergarten at 5 will start 8th grade at 13 and turn 14 during that year - some during the first week of school. At least four of my DD's classmates, who started kindergarten at 6 only because of a late birthday and maturity, will turn 15 during April or May of their 8th grade year.


As for the pellet gun issue, I think I called that back on page 1.

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarep...icles/2008/07/23/20080723airsoft0723side.html

Over the past several years, young people with imitation guns in Maryland, Florida, Pennsylvania and Arkansas have been killed by police, who thought the play weapons were real.

http://www.irol.com/avc/fact_sheet_about_toy_guns.html

a whole list of incidents including:

On June 22, 2007, in West Memphis, Arkansas, a 12-year-old boy, De Aunta Farrow, was shot and killed by a Memphis police officer because he was holding a toy gun in his hand, and the police officer said it looked real.

http://www.opposingviews.com/i/society/guns/airsoft-guns-not-real-guns-can-be-dangerous

Federal law requires all toy guns to have bright orange tips to distinguish them from the real thing. But some people take off or paint the tips.

 

[sassy_texasbelle2]

The officers did not start out their day saying I want to go and kill some kid today. This kid is responsible for his actions. He caused all of this. It is way past time that we stop blaming everyone but the one responsible. If they had not done what they did and he shot someone else everyone would be screaming why they did not do anything.

With a gun pointed my way I do not think I would have time to think about anything but getting my butt blow away. They had asked him to drop the gun. He didn't. That was the consequence to his action. He was told what would happen. I do not want to hear about he is "just a kid"...blah blah blah...I was "just a kid" too and did not go around pulling guns on innocent people. You can bet they will get sued and pay out the nose for someone breaking the law. Sad situation our country is in now.

 

[katydid23]

While I totally agree with you about the taser and LE, I do want to point out that 15 is only one year behind, not two. Kids who start kindergarten at 5 will start 8th grade at 13 and turn 14 during that year - some during the first week of school. At least four of my DD's classmates, who started kindergarten at 6 only because of a late birthday and maturity, will turn 15 during April or May of their 8th grade year.




]

respectfully snipped by me...

But this kid was 15 in January, not May. I think he was a couple of years behind. I could easily be wrong.

 

[Sharedspirit]

I understand why people wish for another option in a situation like this. I sure wouldn't want to be the officers who had to make the decision to pull the trigger. A no win situation for them. So very sad.

 

[Coldpizza]

I believe we all have the right to bear arms. My DH has one in his night stand.I probably could shoot it if I absolutely had to.

I think my son was 14 when he asked if he could go on a hunting trip. I didn't have a problem with that as his friend's dad was a State DA that he was going hunting with.
I did have a problem that he wasn't trained in weapons.

So, I consented with the caveat that he took the safety courses and the proper steps to carry a weapon at that age along with the initial knowledge required.

That was a difficult step for me as my views at the time were skewed and I lacked knowledge. His SF took the courses with him and in the actual testing phase which included marksmanship and safety he was the top of the class. This was a class that included existing Sheriffs that were updating their skills.

He now is studying Criminal Justice and I am very proud of him.

I only wish this young man at some point had better guidance that would have taken him down a better path.

 

[wfgodot]

I had a pellet gun as a kid, but it was rifle-like and quite distinguishable from the real thing. The pistol-type pellet guns? They look real.

Prayers for all involved.

 

[~n/t~]

From Twitter:

A pellet gun? Oh dear

 

[~n/t~]

3 shots to the chest. Isn`t that excessive?

 

[Sharedspirit]

3 shots to the chest. Isn`t that excessive?

I doubt the officers had time to decide how many times it was going to take to disarm the gunman. Wasn't there more than one officer? Would explain multiple shots.

 

[katydid23]

3 shots to the chest. Isn`t that excessive?

No, because if someone is holding their finger on the trigger of a glock, which is an automatic weapon, then if they are just shot ONE time, they could shoot off a dozen rounds before they are incapacitated. Once you make the decision to shoot, you shoot to save lives.

 

[HMSHood]

Imo, it was a suicide by cop. This kid knew what was going to happen if he took a 'Glock' to school and waved it around threateningly. And he ruined his life, his family's life,and the cops that shot him as well.

Could very well be. I wonder if he had any issues. Kinda reminds me of Colton Tooley or Sam Hengel.

Colton Tooley
Shooter on UT-Austin Campus - Websleuths Crime Sleuthing Community

Sam Hengel
WI- Armed Student Reportedly Holding High School Classroom Full of Hostages *merged* - Websleuths Crime Sleuthing Community

 

[Kimberlyd125]

3 shots to the chest. Isn`t that excessive?

Last report said 2 officers shot the boy and that he was shot at least twice.

I don't think 1 person shot him 3 times.

 

[wfgodot]

The gun Gonzalez was carrying, a CO2.177-caliber pellet pistol, looked like a dangerous firearm, said detective Jose Treviño, a police spokesman.

“It has the exact appearance of Glock,” Treviño said.

much more at

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/lo...police-kill-teen-at-middle-school-2440652.php

Picture of the pellet pistol

 

[Kimberlyd125]

Here is the picture of the gun from wfgodot's link:

 

[Kimberlyd125]

Also from the link:

The suspect was ordered numerous times to drop this pistol and he disobeyed officers' commands.
He pointed the weapon at the officers, at which point the officers that were actively engaged by the suspect fired at least twice.

 

[Emma Peel]

omg.

just gotta type - how profoundly sad. for all.

raying: for the boy's family, the responding officers & their families, the school community - staff, students, and their families.

School shootings - such a waste. OMG. What was this child thinking?

Incredibly, we had a school 3 years ago this coming April with but one victim - because the boy intending to kill 30 teachers & high school students accidentally shot himself dead in the boy's bathroom while loading his automatic rifle.

In our case, we know what he was thinking.
Teenagers are extremely fragile.

Perhaps as adults, we don't appreciate that enough. It's like, we were teenagers, but we turned the corner and our memory of it is erased.

That's all I'm gonna say about that. For now. Except raying:



raying: one more time for everyone in Brownsville.

 

[Steely Dan]

Rifle, pistol, pellet gun - don't matter.

A weapon is a weapon and most are hard to tell just what they are at any kind of distance.

LE did what they had to do. I agree - the poor officers that did shoot him will need counseling but they did what they are trained to do.

School shootings are scary and a lot of times innocents are killed. At least with this one - no one else was hurt.


JMHO

BBM

I will readily admit that what I'm about to say makes me look like an :butthead:, but I'll say it anyway. If I'm a cop and I shot this kid I'm not sure I'd feel all that bad. He brought it on himself. They say drop the weapon then you drop the weapon. It couldn't be any simpler. JMO

His actions caused his death.

Nobody's fault but his own.

You can't bring a gun to school (real or pellet), wave it around I'm the hall, ignore LE's commands to drop it, and expect detention.

This kid knew what he was doing IMO.

It's sad he had to die, but IMO LE did what they had to do to defuse the situation for everyone's safety.

BBM

Exactly! :thumb:

3 shots to the chest. Isn`t that excessive?

There were two cops that thought the kid had a Glock and was going to use it. The whole point is to stop him from firing shot one. When cops do 41 shots into someone that's excessive, IMO, but not 3.

 

[tiredblondy]

Here is the picture of the gun from wfgodot's link:

My son who is 25 yrs old has one just like that. They are heavy, look and feel like a real glock. They have a hair trigger too. I know because I asked him where he got the money to buy a gun when I picked it up off a bookshelf in his house. I did not believe that it was a pellet gun ( I've been around guns all my life) till he took the cartridge out to show me.

Trust me they look just like a real gun and they can do physical damage if they hit you!

I worked in the school system for 30 years. The most terrifying experience was sitting through the workshop the Sheriff's dept presented training us for lockdown. Not only was it terrifying ( I had chills, nausea and a lump in my throat the whole time.) but it was very hard to realize that things/life would never be the same again. An innocence was lost that will never be regained . No more thinking nothing could happen like this in America! It was so very hard for me to accept, I went home, figured up my days till retirement and cried for our children's future!!

 

[CarmelEyesD]

He had problems, and he took the gun to school. He waved it around and didn't drop it when he was told to. That tells me he felt using a gun was the way to solve his problem. Who is to say that some years down the road, he wouldn't have shot a whole bunch of people, to solve his problem? Even assuming this time he wasn't killed, only censored, slapped on the hand etc...maybe counseling...he may have been a fair greater danger in the future to more people. IMO Counseling may have helped, but there are many people for whom counseling does not change anything at all.