Originally Posted By wonderingalice What WAS this kid thinking - if he wasn't - indeed - suicidal? And one also has to wonder... 15 years old and in the 8th grade...? It's going to be interesting to see this story unfold further. I'd say he's going to need more than a little bit of psychiatric help if he makes it through this. <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/01/13/teen.shot/index.html" target="_blank">http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/01/ 13/teen.shot/index.html</a> (CNN) -- A sheriff's deputy shot a 15-year-old he believed was armed with a 9 mm handgun at a Florida middle school Friday only to learn later that the weapon was a modified pellet gun, the Seminole County sheriff said. The student is on life support at Orlando Regional Medical Center, Sheriff Don Eslinger said. Eslinger said that the student had painted the brightly colored tip of the pellet gun black to make it look like a real gun. The sheriff's deputy was a member of the SWAT team and shot the eighth-grader only after the student raised the gun and threatened officers, Eslinger said. The shooting occurred about 9:30 a.m. at Millwee Middle School in Longwood, Florida. (Watch the aftermath of the shooting -- 1:54) The suburban Orlando school was promptly evacuated after the shooting, which began when the teen's fellow students learned he had a gun. The students were planning to tell a teacher about it, the sheriff's office said. The teen became agitated and tried to take a student hostage, but a scuffle ensued and the hostage got away, the sheriff's office said. Deputies were then called to the scene, and the teen led them on a foot chase across campus before police cornered him in a bathroom, the sheriff's office said. Deputies attempted to negotiate the teen's surrender, the sheriff's office said, but the student began pointing the gun at his own head and throat. When the boy raised the gun toward deputies, one of them shot him, the sheriff said. "From what the deputies explained to me, (the teen) was suicidal," said Eslinger said.
Originally Posted By peeaanuut I dont think the deputy did anything wrong. But it is tragic. Of course the parents will blame the sherrifs and sue. Its the american way.
Originally Posted By cstephens I feel sorry for the kid (who knows what prompted this) and for the parents (to lose a child in any fashion), but I also feel sorry for the deputy. I hope he gets the counseling he might need to deal with this. Even though it seems that he did what he had to do, it can't be easy to live with. /cs
Originally Posted By wonderingalice ^^Ain't that the truth. And no... The deputy did what he had to do... What any of us would do - assuming we're armed - in that circumstance.
Originally Posted By wonderingalice #4 was for peeaanuut, but fits yours too, cs... It was just an awful situation in every way.
Originally Posted By Kylesmom That gun looks completely real to me. I've always thought suicide by cop was a c.s. way to go.
Originally Posted By Mrs ElderP The news is reporting that the child has passed away. This does not make the situation any easier!
Originally Posted By wonderingalice It doesn't... I credit his parents for doing the right thing in a horrible situation... They had him kept alive as long as possible in order to donate his organs.
