Cops: Officer fatally shoots Calif. high schooler with bat

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Source: Associated Press

By GARANCE BURKE, Associated Press Writer Wed Apr 16, 8:42 PM ET

FRESNO, Calif. - A police officer shot and killed a high school student Wednesday after the teenager attacked the officer with a baseball bat on campus, authorities said.

The officer fired after the 17-year-old boy at Roosevelt High School came up behind the officer and hit him in the head with the bat, according to Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer.

The officer fell down dazed, and reached for the gun in his hip holster, but the clip fell out. As the student came at him a second time, the officer grabbed a handgun from his ankle holster and fired one or two rounds, Dyer said. The student reportedly died within a few minutes.

"The officer was fortunate that he was able to defend himself," the chief said.

The reason for the attack was not immediately known. Dyer said there was no history of run-ins between the student and the officer, who was employed by the police department as the school's resource officer.

The student was described as a longtime Fresno resident who recently transferred to the school.

The officer was released from a local hospital Wednesday afternoon after being treated for a two-inch gash on the right side of his head, police said. He will be placed on administrative leave while the department reviews his conduct, Dyer said.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080417/ap_on_re_us/student_killed

[leftyclimber]

1. Sounds like the kid had some serious problems.

Sad.

And that headline is a grammatical disaster.

[alphafemale]

3. He shot him with a bat.

:D

[saigon68]

8. The lesson:------ Don't Bring a Bat to a "Gun Fight"

Or for that matter a knife either.

[Tesha]

14. The hard part was getting the furry little bat to crawl down the muzzle! (NT)

[Codedonkey]

24. lol

That made me actually l o l

[darue]

28. the bat is hollowed out and a rifle barrel is inserted down the middle I guess n/t

[alphafemale]

2. Sounds like self defense to me.

If someone was trying to kill me with a baseball bat I'd hope to have a gun.

[Mike Daniels]

4. Perp strikes cop from behind and attempts to continue attack

while cop is laid out on the ground.

Unquestionably, this is self defense on the part of the cop.

[Honeycombe8]

44. Yes. Self defense. Sounds like he just fired w/o specifically trying to kill.

Anyone who attacks an armed officer with a deadly weapon (which is what a bat is, when used in a certain way), is asking to be shot.

[KnaveRupe]

5. No problems with this one as described.

This scenario is EXACTLY why police carry guns.

I'm sure there's a story behind WHY the kid attacked the cop, but I can't imagine a scenario where it would matter.

[PSPS]

6. "Ankle holster?"

Sorry, but something's missing in this story.

[bitchkitty]

7. What's missing?

Ever known a cop? I believe more than most carry a second gun, usually in an ankle holster.

This man was obviously defending himself. I'm glad he had the ankle holster. It is sad that a 17-year old boy is dead, but I don't see where the man had a choice. He was on the ground, about to be brained a second time - I would have shot the boy too. Would you?

[slampoet]

9. As the son of a former cop i can tell you that even a 90 yearold can swing a bat three times in the

time that it takes to draw one gun and have the clip fall out and then draw an ankle holster, which takes longer than a belt draw, and then aim and fire.


It sounds like the kid hit the cop once and the cop failed to kill the kid with the first gun and then drew his ankle weapon to kill him. Not self defense as the Quakers would define it, but maybe as laws in Texas might.


This doesn't add up. A baseball bat is a faster weapon than a gun in an ankle holster. ANYONE should have been able to take four or five swings in the time a cop finds and draws two guns.

It sounds like the perp stopped swinging the bat at least four seconds before he was shot dead.

Also this is the very first time I have EVER heard of a clip falling out of a service weapon. I'm not going to say it never happens because I'm not an expert on different makes of pistols but a quick google check fails to find any other incedent where it has happened to a cop or military person.

[bitchkitty]

26. The article says that the kid came up

behind him and laid him out.

I don't have a comment on the clip falling out. Do you read something sinister into that?

[slampoet]

42. Not sinister so much as extremely rare.

In fact, unique. First time i have ever heard of such a thing and a simple google search yields no other such happening ever.



It is like the time I tried to find out if anyone had ever been injured by a falling piano.

I searched for weeks and couldn't find once that it had happened.

[Xithras]

33. The kid assaulted him once, and them came back again.

[slampoet]

43. In my experience, people rarely attack. pause, give their opponent time to recover, and then attack

again once more.

The details on that seem hazy.

Did the kid attack again because the cop was going to shoot him even though the immediate threat was over?

[Honeycombe8]

45. Sure they do. If they're yelling at the victim. Kid attacked the cop w/a deadly weapon.

Once that happens, all bets are off. Whatever the armed victim has to do, after that point, is self defense, in my book.

[slampoet]

51. So you're saying the kid kept yelling as a gun was drawn and dropped its clip?

Then kept yelling as the officer reached down and took out another gun from his ankle?


Maybe it happened but you have to admit it is unlikely.

[slackmaster]

13. Another account I saw said the cop's primary weapon failed

The magazine fell out or something like that. The gun in the ankle holster was a backup.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

15. Shouldn't matter.

He still should have a round in the chamber to fire. Hard to say what happened without very specific details.

David

[slackmaster]

16. Unless his primary gun has a "magazine disconnect safety" that our legislature mandated recently

Brilliant idea - Make it so your gun can't fire a chambered round unless there is a magazine in the well.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

17. Good point, I didn't even think of that.

You're right, that's absolutely ridiculous. Heaven forbid I drop a mag and need to fire that last shot while I'm trying to reload. Stupid laws written by ignorant people.


David

[slackmaster]

18. People wonder why I oppose most proposed gun control laws

That one is a perfect example - Technical mandates written by non-technical people.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

23. Well put!

[NutmegYankee]

39. Spot on!

[Snarkturian Clone]

10. If you hit a cop with a baseball bat

expect to be put down.

[JeanGrey]

11. Self Defense.

[slackmaster]

12. Never use a baseball bat to start a gun fight

:shrug:

[truthisfreedom]

19. Not a lot of long-range thinking going on in that kid's head.

I feel bad for the cop.

[slackmaster]

20. I feel bad for the kid's family, everyone at the school, and the cop too

He's not only got a whopping headache right now, he has to live the rest of his life knowing he shot a young man.

Even if it was perfectly justified legally and morally, that would still be a hell of a thing to carry with you.

[Snarkturian Clone]

22. That's true.

I had a prof in college that had killed an armed robber during a convenience store robbery. Even though it was pretty much justified (they shot at him first), he felt bad about it.

[flvegan]

21. I'm sorry for the family and the other kids that may have seen this, or

were friends of this kid. However, the cop (as it would appear from this article alone) seems well justified, and I'm sure he and his family are thankful that he had a secondary.

[Codedonkey]

25. I bet it turns out the kid was on some sort of anti-depressants or something of that sort....

[bitchkitty]

27. Oh, please.

Are you a Scientologist? I take antidepressants, think I'm in danger of attacking the police with a baseball bat?

Seriously doubt medication caused this. Lack of it, probably.

[Codedonkey]

29. "Are you a Scientologist?"... Of course not!

I have my own cult that I created.

[Honeycombe8]

46. If we was taking aspirin, attys will try to blame kid's actions on it. But there has been proof...

that certain medications have a side effect of violence, I believe. You don't have to be a scientologist to read the studies and acknowledge them. Simply having reading skills will do.

Best to stay off all medications (and away from doctors and hospitals) unless absolutely necessary. Sometimes they are necessary. But sometimes they are not.

Recent studies have shown that EXERCISE and a healthy lifestyle are as effective, if not more so, than medication, in helping depression.

[Thepricebreaker]

30. How about the kid was just fucking stupid and made a bad choice?

[Codedonkey]

32. Well...

Because it was random and without cause. It's not as if he was committing a crime, got caught and then did it. In that case I think it would be more likely the kid was just stupid and made a bad choice.

However, since it seems as if the kid simply snapped, I don't put that in the same category. Clearly he wasn't right in the head... for whatever reason that might be.

[Honeycombe8]

47. The prisons are full of evil people who aren't "right in the head." Some people

cannot control their anger. Or haven't learned to. Or have even been taught not to. After all, "boys will be boys."

[High Plains]

49. Wrong. The prisons are perhaps half full with violent criminals.

We have more than one million non-violent offenders behind bars, half a million because of their choice of substances.

[BadgerLaw2010]

53. Yes, but those violent criminals do exist and are (rightly) in prison.

If you just cannot or will not play well with others, you absolutely should be incapacitated. One of the few legitimate justifications for incarceration.

[slackmaster]

38. “He was depressed and he was on medication and the school knew it..."

Says his older sister.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20080418/news_1n18student.html

[darue]

50. and it was a tiny 21-inch bat too - he had plenty of time, didn't need to shoot

it's cowardly is what it is.

[BadgerLaw2010]

54. Isn't relevant to attacking a police officer with a deadly weapon.

Almost certainly not relevant to the legal guilt, and not at all relevant to the fact he attacked the cop with a bat from behind, as the consequences for doing that aren't handled in the courtroom.

[khaos]

31. what was the cop doing there? guns should not be allowed in schools.. period

[Xithras]

34. Armed police officers are a pretty normal part of the California high school experience.

If they weren't there, the armed gang bangers would take them over. California public schools, at least in the bigger cities, have an appalling amount of on-campus violence. Fresno has gang problems that sometimes rival the worst parts of LA.

Just down the highway from me in Modesto, they just had a 13 year old kid blown away in a drive by a couple of days ago. It wasn't a stray bullet or mistaken identity either...at 13, the kid was a full blown and WELL ARMED gangbanger. The Valley has serious issues with gang crime.

[Name removed]

35. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[DS1]

37. oh fuck off

[coriolis]

40. They aren't. That's why nobody has ever been shot in a school.

:eyes:
:eyes:
:eyes:

[JVS]

36. You shouldn't try to repeatedly assault people with a bat if you don't want to be shot

[Name removed]

41. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[ohio2007]

48. "the teenager attacked the officer with a baseball bat "...what was a cop doing on school property

in the first place ?

-----the officer was released from a local hospital Wednesday afternoon after being treated for a

two-inch gash on the right side of his head.......


/sarc

[laylah]

52. We have an

officer assigned to our campus. That is a good thing considering 90% of the kiddos there are gang members, or wannabe's.