http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060115/ap_on_re_us/school_evacuated

Lawyer: Teen Shot by Police Is Brain Dead

By KELLI KENNEDY, Associated Press Writer
49 minutes ago

LONGWOOD, Fla. - The parents of a 15-year-old boy accused of terrorizing classmates with a pistol warned authorities the weapon likely was fake before police shot him in a middle school bathroom, a family attorney said Saturday.

Christopher Penley, of Winter Springs, was accused of pulling a pellet gun in a classroom Friday and pointing it at other students. When he later raised the weapon at a deputy, a SWAT team member shot him, authorities said. Penley was clinically brain dead Saturday, said family attorney Mark Nation.

"His organs are in the process of being harvested," Nation said.

Officers who had responded to the 1,100-student school in suburban Orlando believed the gun was a Beretta 9mm, and didn't learn until after the shooting that it was a pellet gun.

The boy's parents, Ralph and Donna Penley, were in contact with authorities during the incident and told them they believed Penley did not have a real gun, Nation said. Ralph Penley went to the school to attempt to talk his son out of the situation.

"When he got to the school, they would not let him in and he was later told Christopher had been shot," Nation said.

Friends and investigators say Penley was bullied and emotionally distraught, and went to school that day expecting to die.

Patrick Lafferty, a 15-year-old neighbor who has known Penley about six years, said he wasn't surprised by what happened. He said Penley was a loner who "told me he wanted to kill himself dozens of times."

"He would put his headphones on and walk up and down the street and he would work out a lot," preferring to keep to himself, Lafferty said.

Kelly Swofford, a family spokeswoman and neighbor of the boy's parents, said the boy had run away from home several times. Her 11-year-old son, Jeffery Swofford, said Penley had said he had something planned.

"He said `I hope I die today because I don't really like my life,'" Jeffery Swofford said.

Maurice Cotey, 13, told WKMG-TV in Orlando that he struggled with Penley over the gun after everyone else left the classroom.

"He got me towards the closet door, he turned me around, and ... started to point the gun at me, so I started to grab for it. And he pulled it away and then I grabbed for it one more time, .... twisted it and I pointed it at him."

Cotey said after he put the gun to Penley's legs, the gunman kicked him into the closet, where the two scuffled further, before Penley ran out of the classroom.

The school went into lockdown.

From there, Seminole County Sheriff Don Eslinger said, Penley traversed the Milwee Middle School campus before ending up in a bathroom. By then, more than 40 officers, including SWAT and negotiators, were on scene. He refused to drop the firearm, Eslinger said, and was shot after pointing it at a SWAT deputy.

Jeffery Swofford said Penley had been in a disagreement with someone, allegedly over a girl. There was going to be a fight Friday, he said. "I heard a rumor that he had a BB gun, but I didn't think he really had one," he added.

He deserved what he got. Period

Nobody deserves to be brain dead.

Sounds to me like he already was.

Parents like this who consider suing need to be smacked around. Gj guys, you sucked at parenting, and its someone else's fault?

This does beg the question though, how many people have considered shooting up their high school.

This kid needed help. Much, much before he was allowed to get himself into a situation like this. What a fucking disgrace.

It's not a matter of considering it. It's a matter of being enough of a looney fuck to make a plan and go through with it.

Far be it from me to sympathize with law enforcement, but when kids that shoot up their schools get killed/maimed by cops, sentenced to a life of prison rape, or commit suicide, I don't feel the least bit sorry. As far as I'm concerned, kids are faced with the three game-show doors during their high school years:

Door #1: Suck it up and deal with it like the rest of us.

Door #2: Seek psychological help or drop out and do what you want to.

Door #3: Just shut the fuck up, take that sawed off shotgun with which you hoped to terrorize classmates, turn it around, and just blow your fucking head off before you do so. Shoot yourselves and don't take anyone else down with you, morons. But feel free to make one of those video journals of your trials and tribulations before your suicide, those are always entertaining and they keep local journalists employed.

I agree mostly - based on what he did, but it's still sad that he was bullied and picked on and his life came to a point where he wanted to die.

I don't know why this is so surprising, it happened in Florida of all places

so youre saying a kid who paints a gun up to look like a real gun, turns and tries to pull it on a cop, this result wouldnt have happened elsewhere, or do you think the police would have thrown lollipops and pillows at him?

It was a pellet gun, not a real gun. The kid shot them with pellets, not bullets.

cops can't take the chance, not shoot him because they're unsure if the gun is real or becuase they feel bad because he's bullied, and then watch him turn around and shoot ten other kids. they are left with no choice. they did what they have to do.

its sad that kids get pushed to this point, but this is why social service programs have a place in schools and need about 100x more funding as what they recieve. if there was someone for him to go to at that school, he might have learned to deal with things different as opposed to like stifling aggression and letting it out with a dangerous prank that ultimately got him killed.

its such a shame.

oh, ok, i didnt realise that, so when a kid turns at you with a gun let him shoot you a few times just to be sure it's real bullets

exaaactly. they had no choice. yep, its a kid... but its a kid with a gun... in a school. i almost applaud the officers for their conduct. they probably saved alot of lives.

perhaps i can claim that liver... mines taken some hits in the past 10 years.

Exactly!

well, you just gave sympathy to 75% of the people that post here

The kid was 15. Maybe they should of just shot him in the leg, and taken him away when he finished crying.

Alot of young boys do really stupid things when they're young. Obviously you have to take this seriously,considering Columbine and others, but SWAT teams shooting 15 year olds for pellet guns is a little much. Where are these taser guns that don't kill you? Going into a middle school with guns blazing, and only guns blazing, doesn't seem like the best route. Maybe this kid just needed the right person to talk to.

He was 15, and in a bathroom.