SWAT team takes down child

A Florida SWAT team was killed in to a middle school, after an 8th grader puled a gun and forced another kid into a closet. The 15 year old boy threatened the lives of his classmate, himself, and the officers at various times of the standoff. Eventually the child was shot, and the gun was determined to be a pellet gun.



It's a sad day. You'd think kids wouldn't be so stupid anymore. Especially one old enough like myself to remember Columbine. Either he was serious about this or he just wanted to die. Eitherway, something needs to be done to further gun control. I'm sure if it had been a real gun the kid would've had no hesitation to shoot someone. But, it also makes you wonder how the SWAT couldn't identify it before shooting him, as a pellet gun. Surely they're trained well enough to figure it out. This is just terrible...

Some of these toy guns look just like the real ones. The only way to really tell that it’s a fake is by holding it, I’m pretty sure SWAT is not going to get that close .

Imagine telling which one of these is a fake and which one is real in that situation.









[edit on 13-1-2006 by WestPoint23]

I'm gonna say that the second one is the real one.


Sorta sad I guess, but in the long run, it's just another case of stupidity.

"SWAT team takes down child."

Since when is a 15 year old a child? That doesn't appear in the story, so why sensationalize the story?

Wondering Monkeys, not just for accuracy anymore...

iori_komei it’s actually the third one, the second one is an air gun. I put it there because it stands out.

True mirthful...
this teen wasn't exactly a kid, but hey, all the national news media hypes headlines, are we that much better?
some...

I have used a precision sighted target rifle before, and within 50 feet, they could have read the brand name, much less looked up the barrel to see the caliber...
of course, that would only have told them it was a 22cal or pellet gun, and either can be dangerous
In this case, i will assume, that there was no reason for them to doubt it was real, so they didn't bother to try.

very sad... but also one of natures little culling methods... we are all smarter as a whole species, when these things happen...

lesson: dont play with guns, unless you are ready to die. it might just happen.
they are not toys, and not to be used lightly.

[edit on 13-1-2006 by LazarusTheLong]

May I suggest a new title?

"Teen waves fake gun at classmates, teacher, police...police blamed"

DE

Oooooooo.

Did these guys train with the new post-911 Air Marshalls?





ed wd

[edit on 13-1-2006 by soficrow]

I agree, the title is a bit misleading--I was expecting a story about a 5 year old or something.

About the realism of the guns though, I had one spring-powered bb gun that looked like a military Colt .45--pretty similar to that first pic by WestPoint. All metal, and if you weren't that familiar with guns you might even think it was real if it were in your hands. Granted, if you looked at the barrel you'd realize it wasn't anything special, but it was definitely heavy enough to where you'd think it was real.

I just don't understand why stuff like this happens in the first place. Where was this kid's parents? Why didn't they ever teach him that guns--even bb/pellet guns--aren't something you screw around with, and if you're trying to get attention you do it in a normal way, like shaving your head and listening to heavy metal played backwards?

iori_komei it’s actually the third one, the second one is an air gun. I put it there because it stands out.

Ha, I knew I should have chosen the third one.

Did these guys train with the new post-911 Air Marshalls?

Umm... if you have a real enough looking gun and you act the part, do you not expect to get shot?

I feel SWAT is blameless in this situation. The kid threatened the lives of his classmates, teachers, and police officers. From what I have read this was not a take-down hit. The cops were going to let the kid negotiate his way out, but then he began pointing the gun at his throat and head. He then proceeded to point the gun at the surrounding police officers, it was at this moment that the officers shot him. He is in critical condition at an area hospital.

Also, are we sure this was a sniper take down? Could it have been an officer with a hand gun? The CNN article I read did not specify.

Originally posted by WestPoint23
iori_komei it’s actually the third one...

I got it right

I'm with UnMature on this one. There are toy guns out there that look real. There was no way for them to know by looking at it. If they hadn't acted, and it had been real, the kid could have killed one of them. The kid was obviously troubled.

As it was, there's a person pointing a gun at the cops... What are you going to do?

If they thought it was a fake gun, why would they shoot and bring all this criticism on themselves?

Originally posted by SFRemmy
Eitherway, something needs to be done to further gun control.

It's already illegal for a 15 year old to have a gun in school. What good would more laws do?

Not to get too far off topic, but I guess some of you are teens and object to be called children but sorry a 15 year old IS a child.

There is nothing wrong with playing with toy guns. I grew up playing war in my back yard with dozens of other children and none of us ever tried to hold real hostages or act in any other criminal ways. I’m sure this problem can be traced directly to the parents.

Originally posted by zerotime
Not to get too far off topic, but I guess some of you are teens and object to be called children but sorry a 15 year old IS a child.

There is nothing wrong with playing with toy guns. I grew up playing war in my back yard with dozens of other children and none of us ever tried to hold real hostages or act in any other criminal ways. I’m sure this problem can be traced directly to the parents.

Everyone's a child. Like it or not. Even at 95 you're still somebody's child.

I played with bb guns and whatnot too. We had airsoft wars and we all took our fair share of plastic and metal pellets, but none of us ever went nuts and killed someone.

I have a feeling this is going to be another case blamed on videogames. They do seem to be a pretty popular scapegoat for EVERY kid related gun accident...

I am a mother and to me even my 19 and 22 year olds are just kids.

That is the way a mother see her children.

But taking in consideration that it was a 15 year old, I say yes he was a child.

Disturbed, perhaps in need of help and probably with feelings of been alone even if he was surrounded by many.

It's a very sad case, but in our society parents are to busy making a living and putting food in the table to even take care or even notice when their child is in trouble.

At least I had a choice to stay at home when one of mine didn't look OK to me so I could work with his, or her problems.

Many parents are not that lucky.

You know, I was just thinking, if they gave the police/SWAT active denial weapons IE microwave guns, they could have easily taken the kid down, without putting him in the hospital.
Just thought of that, something that hopefully in the future will be the case.

When I was a screener at the airport here, we got several alerts about new plastic guns. They were even colored bright colors like red, and pink like toy dart guns are painted. Imagine how much worse things will be if those ever hit the markets in large numbers.

Originally posted by SFRemmy
A Florida SWAT team was killed in to a middle school, after an 8th grader puled a gun and forced another kid into a closet. The 15 year old boy threatened the lives of his classmate, himself, and the officers at various times of the standoff. Eventually the child was shot, and the gun was determined to be a pellet gun.

its not that sad you have to remember this kid is waving a gun around in a school. if the kid was 5 and pointed a gun at me you can bet your last dollar ill defend myself. id personally try shoot the gun out of his hand instead of like shoot him where it could kill.

mod edit: shortened quote

[edit on 14-1-2006 by sanctum]

Originally posted by SFRemmy
A Florida SWAT team was killed in to a middle school, after an 8th grader puled a gun and forced another kid into a closet.

I just noticed that. Oops.