8th grader with pellet gun killed by Texas police

8th grader with pellet gun killed by Texas police

15-year-old Jaime Gonzalez was repeatedly shot in a hallway at Cummings Middle School in Brownsville. The eighth grader was fatally shot by police inside his South Texas School, the parents are now demanding to know why officers took lethal action. But police said the boy was showing off and refused to drop what appeared to be a handgun and that the officers acted appropriately. No one else was injured.

When examined, the turned out to be a pellet gun that closely resembled the real thing.

The boy's father, Jaime Gonzalez Sr. asked "Why was so much excess force used on a minor?" he further added “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," said his mother Noralva Gonzalez.

Interim Police Chief Orlando Rodriguez said the teen was pointing the weapon at officers and had plenty of opportunities to lower the gun and listen to the officers' orders, and he didn't want to.

The chief said his officers had every right to do what they did to protect themselves and other students even though there weren't many others in the hallway at the time. Police said officers fired three shots, with one shot to the head.

Posted by James Fried on Saturday January 07 2012, 4:49 AM EDT. Ref: CNN. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Nation. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0