Police kill armed 8th-grader in Texas school

Nancy Blanco and her husband Arturo Carreon comforted their two children, Ashley Carreon,12, and Josey Lynn Carreon, 13, after being reunited with them at Dean Porter Park in Brownsville, Texas Wednesday, Jan. 4, 2012. The park is across the street from Cummings Middle School. / AP Photo/The Brownsville Herald, Brad Doherty

BROWNSVILLE, Texas - Police shot and killed an armed eighth-grader who "engaged" officers in the main hallway of his middle school on Wednesday, the South Texas school district said.

Brownsville school district officials said administrators immediately called police after the student brandished a weapon about 8 a.m., shortly after classes started at Cummings Middle School. When police arrived, the student "engaged" the officers and was shot, district spokeswoman Drue Brown said in an emailed statement.

Cameron County Justice of the Peace Kip V. Johnson Hodge pronounced the student dead at a hospital and has ordered an autopsy, said court coordinator Israel Tapia.

The school, with an enrollment of about 750 students, was placed on lockdown when administrators called police and no one else was injured, Brown said.

A seventh grade student who said he was two classrooms from where the shooting took place said the school was already on lockdown when he heard three shots. Miguel Grimaldo, 12, said students later followed police out of the building and boarded buses that took them to a neighboring park, where his mother picked him up late Wednesday morning.

"For now they're not saying anything, just pick up your kids," said the boy's mother, Maria Grimaldo.

The street in front of Cummings was lined with police cars and blocked off. About two hours after the shooting, dozens of frustrated parents and relatives flooded out of the park pavilion without their children after school officials announced that all remaining children had been bused to a high school and could be picked up there.

Daniel Lozano, the father of a 14-year-old eighth-grader, told CBS affiliate KENS that he and his wife closed up their small grocery and rushed to the school to find information. He expressed alarm that someone had been able to get a gun into the middle school.

"This is really messed up," Lozano said. "I thought they had more security."

Julie Tomalenas waited for an hour to pick up her 13-year-old sister before being told of the relocation.

"It was very stressful not knowing if she was OK, where she was, when we could see her again," Tomalenas said.

The lockdown was lifted about two hours after the shooting, but the students and employees were relocated while officers investigated at the school, Brown said.

Brownsville police Detective J.J. Trevino said investigators hadn't determined whether the student fired any shots, and he said officers had no information on why the student might have had the gun on him.

"It's still under investigation, as far as how he came about to bringing the weapon or if he encountered anybody or anything else," Trevino said.

Brownsville is 280 miles south of San Antonio on the southern tip of Texas.

[docstat61]

The funny thing is that in the event that it had been a real weapon that was being discharged in school, these two officers would not have been too eager to rush in. No they would have waited for a SWAT team. If the kid had meant to kill anyone, he already would have done so by the time the police got there. The kid was clearly troubled, but certainly could have been talked down. As hard as it is for you to believe, there are non cowards in the world who would have been willing to do this rather than having the kid shot.

[docstat61]

you accuse me of seeing what "i want to see", yet you invent facts for your own scenario. Even worse you take every word that the cops say as the truth. Where did you get the story that the kid was raising his gun to fire? When you invent facts you can can support any argument you want. Next time there is a similar situation, call in some real men who are not afraid to talk down a bb gun toting kid. You can go eat donuts with the cops. What is ludicrous is the way cowards like you defend this incredibly cowardly act by the cops

[js2212]

Several news sources confirm he brandished the firearm when instructed to drop the weapon by officers. They then shot him. Look up the definition of "brandish" Einstein. Then retreat back into your warm, false sense of reality.

[chiquita1978]

cops like we dont need enemies and please keep cops like that in Texas and out of NC. I have 5 kids and I want them to stay a live and cop shooting three times up in a hall of kids you could have hit the wrong kid and that is still to much to shoot him 3 times once is enough just take him to the ground that is what they are trained to do right that is what our tax dollar are paying for right not to kill kids

[breto62]

Glad the cops shot this kid; if the cops took down the idiots at Columbine early enough then maybe there would not have been as much loss of life. If the kid is armed then the kid is a legitimate target.

[smittyc]

I guarantee you if this kid was a teachers child,or a police officers child, or one of the children of the "somebodies" in this town rather than a nobody, this story would have had an entirely different ending.

[jackpenn]

I thought cops went through those pop-up training courses, where you walk through an area and have different targets pop-up, and you have to react to whatever the target portrays. If it is an armed robber you fire quick, but if it's an old lady you restrain yourself. I am sure they propbably have a kid with a water gun that pops-up at you, so what should you do? Shoot him, right?

[breto62]

The idiot was not armed with a water gun; what an incredibly invalid argument.

[AOCGUY]

No but when the kid pops up with what appears to be a real gun - you do shoot him

[erasmus111]

by Brokennews January 4, 2012 6:26 PM EST
Okay!

You've just shot the perp in the leg.

Now he's angry, wounded & he's still armed!

Now what?


by cleveland39 January 4, 2012 8:50 PM EST
Why do people think life is like tv. You can't expect anyone in real life to shoot the gun out of a persons hand. Everyone who thinks it's easy to "shoot to injure" should go to a gun range that has moving targets and see how things go.





Cops are trained to shoot moving targets.

And obviously you wouldn't be shooting him in the leg if you were worried about him shooting. You would shoot him in the hand or arm. DUH!

[AOCGUY]

Ever tried to shoot something the size of a hand when that hand appears to be theatening to shoot you? You go for center of mass my friend.

[docstat61]

The cops should then be prepared to drop the kid at the moment he begins to fire, not before. Perhaps the real problem is that cops eat too much donuts, are out of shape, have bad reaction times and panic at any at the slightest threat to them. In all honestly, I would be more concerned about the welfare of my own kids where the cops are trigger happy and start spraying their own weapons at a single child. As the story here goes, of the shots fired by the three cops, not all of them hit target.

[js2212]

docstat, that is a ludicrous proposition and clearly, you refuse to see anything other than what you want to see. "At the moment he begins to fire" - when pray tell is that? What kind of reaction time would that take? And what is the exact time span within which lies "the moment he begins to fire"? He brought the weapon up as though he planned to begin firing. And he was in close proximity to other children. End of story. Thank god you're not a cop - you'd be pushing up daisies before you even got your weapon out of the holster and the gunman would have wasted half the school. "Moment he begins to fire" indeed.

[js2212]

My scenario also presupposes that the weapon in question is real, since these guys had to assume such was the case.

[docstat61]

I never said the cops should have taken a bullet for the kid, only that the police seem to have a mindset that it is preferable to overreact and kill a child as opposed to assuming even the remotest chance of taking a bullet themselves. You took what I said too literally, so apparently this is a concept that is too abstract for you to grasp. A dangerous situation requires well thought out action not over reaction. The facts that can be infered from the article are that the school was locked down, the kid was the only one in the hall,and he was not pointing the gun.
Overreaction to small threats are what gun happy cops do and will continue to do because they are always defended by morons, cowards and *******.

[1stphantom]

I am Sorry, but we are talking about a child, of course the cops couldn't do better, perhaps more training, and less I am, will teach then to be more perceptived, the untochables aren't as such, I mourned the loss of a martir, of ignorance, non commom senses, we should all take some responsability for this great loss, my prayers to those parents, to me is one more angel a yet Inocent and true Human being, have left us, empty. I prey for God to take him, and tech him, NOW! amen.

[kenodenis]

Shoulda, coulda, woulda - that's what those cops are thinking now. I feel sorry for them. Like - "why didn't we just shoot the kid's arm that was holding the gun instead of shooting to kill." ??? The cops probably have children the same age. Many lives have been forever altered today, especially those cops' lives. Let's continue to raise our kids on violent t.v. shows and video games, shall we?