Parents Question Lethal Force on 8th-Grader With Pellet Gun

Parents Question Lethal Force on 8th-Grader With Pellet Gun

By William M. Welch and Carolyn Pesce | USA TODAY | 01/04/2012

Exceerpts:

“Parents of an eighth grade student shot and killed by police after he displayed a pellet gun in school called the shooting an injustice as the acting police chief confirmed Thursday that officers have received death threats.
Jaime Gonzales, 15, died Wednesday at his middle school in Brownsville, Texas, after two officers fired three shots, striking Gonzalez at least twice, after he failed to comply with "numerous commands" to drop the weapon, said Interim Police Chief Orlando Rodriguez.

He said that before police were called to the school, Gonzalez walked into a classroom and punched another boy in the nose.

The boy's father, Jaime Gonzalez Sr., called the shooting unjustified and said he had no idea where his son got the pellet gun.

"Why was so much excess force used on a minor?" he asked outside the family home, the Associated Press reported. "Three shots. Why not one that would bring him down?"

"What happened was an injustice," she said angrily. "I know that my son wasn't perfect, but he was a great kid."

Rodriguez said his officers "took the necessary action to protect themselves and the other kids."

He confirmed to The Brownsville Herald that police officers have received death threats following the shooting death.

He said the weapon was a .177-caliber pellet gun, which uses compressed carbon dioxide to fire a small metal pellet at low velocity. Police released a photo of what they said was Gonzalez's gun, which resembled a semiautomatic handgun.

School administrators called police and ordered a lockdown after the student "displayed a weapon" in the main hallway, Brown said.

Student Robert Valle, 13, reported hearing police enter the hallway and shout, "Put the gun down."

"I was nervous," Jade Rodriguez, 11, said. "I was under the desk."

A recording of police radio traffic posted on KGBT-TV's website indicates that officers responding to the school believed the teen had a handgun. An officer is heard describing the teen's clothes and appearance, saying he's "holding a handgun, black in color." The officer also said that from the front door, he could see the boy in the school's main office.

Less than two minutes later, someone yells over the radio "shots fired" and emergency crews are asked to respond. About two minutes later, someone asks where the boy was shot, prompting responses that he was shot in the chest and "from the back of the head."

Superintendent Carl Montoya remembered Gonzalez as "a very positive young man."

"He did music. He worked well with everybody. Just something unfortunately happened today that caused his behavior to go the way it went. So I don't know," he said Wednesday.

Two dozen of his son's friends and classmates gathered in the dark street outside the family's home Wednesday night. Jaime's best friend, 16-year-old Star Rodriguez, said her favorite memory was when Jaime came to her party Dec. 29 and they danced and sang together.

Dewey Cornell, a psychologist and education professor at the University of Virginia, said that in most school shooting cases, someone knew beforehand about an armed student's distress.

"The first question that people have to ask is whether this boy felt bullied or mistreated in the school in some way," Cornell said. "Initially people always express dismay. Invariably when you find out enough about the young man, it does become explicable."

U.S. Education Department data show that in the 2008-09 school year, the most recent for which records are available, 15 students were school homicide victims. In 1992-93, the figure was 34.”

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/story/2012-01-04/texas-student-shot/52379064/1
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I think that a full time counselor should be in every middle and high school to stop any further violence which sometimes comes from the police that have been called. A counselor would be aware of any problem that a student is having that causes him to bring firearms to school, or to start fights of grievances, and bullying that goes on in so many schools.

A counselor would be able to refer him to a psychologist to find the problem and help the student work it thru. Without this ongoing help with young kids in their most crucial time in life, you can never be certain how he will react to adult life situations.

Why should an 11 year old become so nervous at school that she gets under her desk? School should be for education purposes only. Public schools should hire nuns as principals to administer a safe, competently run, school environment.

 

Ayuh,.... Probably 'cause her 15 year old classmate had a Gun...

 

I'm sure the situation was more tense than the media is letting on, but at the same time... shooting him in the back of the head?

It looks like somebody's turning in his badge and probably will face a lawsuit.

 

This is the sort of behavior of "I cant be wrong" that is crippling our nation and stunting us from being able to take blame for our own actions.

 

and I question parents that allow an 8th grader a gun that looks real

 

He wasn't shot in the head. It was reported last night from the ME that he was shot twice and the head "wound" was from the fall.

 

Oh, well, that's considerably better, despite the death.

Still, this was definitely an overreaction by police.

 

wait....15 and in 8th grade? did I read that right?

 

He was running down the school hall way with a gun. When should they have waited? Till he started firing into random classrooms?

 

Talk about trying to put a martyr spin on a bad guy. Give me a break. Sure we all make mistakes and this kid probably had some redeeming qualities, but his parents are acting (understandably) out of pure emotion here. Not logic. Their son put himself in that situation, and the police did exactly what they should have done. If they believed at the time that the gun he had was real, then they had no obligation to go easy on him. Their primary obligation was the safety of the other students. Trying to blame the cops for doing their job when the kid was totally out of line is part of what is wrong with our society today where we always blame the good guys for not being good enough and we never hold the bad guys responsible for their actions.

Is it sad that this happened? Yes. But at least place the blame where it belongs; on the kid. He made a bad decision, and he paid for it. And now his family is unfortunately having to deal with the consequences.

 

I guess bringing a gun to school (even if it was fake) wasn't the first sign that the kid had a sub-par IQ.

 

I would say ignoring the guys with REAL guns pointed at you, telling you to put down the gun....was probably the last sign of his subpar iq.

 

Point taken.

 

I guessing everyone that's ripping on these cops has been in a similar situation and definitely made better choices right?

 

I have. 10 letters

 

wtf? my friends and I played with BB guns all the time when we were that age. Those things look very real. Doesn't mean we'd take them to school and show them off like this moron did.

 

That idiot's idiot parents would be looking to sue the state/school system..somebody... had a pellet gun wielding moron shot their precious little 'not perfect, but great' towhead.

 

So do you fault the police on this?

 

When you take a gun to school, whether its real or fake it doesn't matter. You risk the police getting invovled and shooting you. This is common sense. The cops aren't going to take any chances with their lives. They told him to drop the gun several times and he refused. So now look at him, he's dead. I have no pity. At least he won't reproduce and spread his stupid genes. Any reasonable person would agree that the officers acted appropriately, no matter how the media tries to spin it.

 

I understand the parents being upset...

Who wouldn't be upset after losing their child?

However, one of the biggest problems I see nowadays is this mentality that your child can't be in the wrong...

In this case, the boy brought a pellet gun, that apparently looked real, to the school...

When this sort of situation arises, the police don't have the time to wait and figure out if the gun is real or not...

There have been so many instances of school shootings, and several people dying, that the police have to respond quickly and decisively...

The fault lies on the student himself...

He should know not to bring a gun OF ANY SORT into a school...

Especially at 15 y/o...

And the parents have to realize what the situation demanded, as difficult as it may be...

Parents have to let their kids know when they are wrong, and start correcting behavior...

That is the only way to catch this kind of (*)(*)(*)(*) before it happens...

 

Oh yea, so you want to spend more school money on non education councilers. And then hire religious Nuns to run the schools? Yea, Nuns are highly trained school administrators. Even my daughters Catholic school is not run by nuns anymore.

How about teach the kids not to bring guns to school. I would also say that police should be taught to deal with a teen in school a little more carefully than an adult making threats in the street.

The facts are not clear, so I will say that I don't want to judge the police. But 2 minutes from entering the school to killing the kid seems like not much time was spent trying to explain that if he did not drop the weapon, he would be shot and killed. However, I also suspect that the kid might have known that and been trying to get killed by police.

 

I see no signs of overreaction...

They told him to put the gun down, and he didn't...

There's no time to play around with that kind of stuff...

 

Kudos to the police on this one. It must be very difficult for them to do what was necessary. I heard the 9-11 tape. Multiple warnings and pleadings given. When you point a gun at people with police weapons drawn on you, you should expect to die.

 

And that's usually what happens...

This case was not an exception...

There's no way to legitimately blame the cops for this...

 

......

1) What do you mean by "obligation?"...they did not handle the situation well. Police react by sending out a traumatizing "Swat Team" to a middle school as if they are searching for a serial killer. Most of the time it is a case of sustained bullying so that a kid comes into school under tremendous pressure from the bullying. In the article a psychologist says a) someone always knows what is troubling the kid, b) that it is always a case of bulllying, harassment, physical abuse that precipitates the violence. Remember, he had come into the room and punched a kid in the nose? Clearly he had a complaint with the kid.

2) The police were totally out of line and too quick to exercise their power. This is a school kid that obviously wasn't too bright...15 and in the 8th grade? A problem he had was either not known or ignored by the principal so that he felt trapped.

3) The police should be trained sufficiently well to differentiate between a school kid in trouble...and a hardened criminal. The blame is on the police.
People make bad decisions all the time, especially when they are in their teens...do they have to die for their 'bad decisions?' The police could have
shot him in the arm that held the "gun"...they did NOT have to kill the kid.