Age 15 is a tough time,its the point in life where your family says your just a kid, and your brain
says your all grown up.
Our grandson is 15, he has set world universewide records for being grounded,
seems like he is always getting his butt chewed on, or grounded.
In fact I was teasing his mama that he won’t be allowed out till he is 932 years old.

Actually that’s ok, as long as he consistently makes bad decisions, he gets to take responsibility for them.

Young Christopher Penley, of Winter Springs,Florida made some pretty bad decisions also.
He took a gun to school. Yes it was a pellet gun, but no one knew that except Christopher, who had repainted the barrel so it looked like a 9 mm.
He pointed the gun at other students, and then ultimately at a member of the sheriffs department.
Lt. Michael Weippert shot him on Friday.
The result , Christopher Penley was declared clinically brain dead Saturday.

It is a terrible terrible thing to lose a child.
It doesn’t matter how, it’s terrible. It changes your life forever.
I am so sorry for the family’s loss.

For those of you who have commented that the swat officer should be charged with murder however,
I think you need to rethink this. Seriously rethink it.

Christopher Penley pulled a gun in a classroom Friday and pointed it at other students.
He later raised the weapon at a deputy. He made some bad decisions.
His family will spend the rest of their lives mourning and wondering what they could have done
differently.

Christopher’s dad, Ralph Penley had gone to the school in hopes of intervening with his son.
For whatever reason, this did not happen ,Ralph Penley was not allowed to speak to his son.
He was told that Christopher had been shot.

At a news conference, Seminole County Sheriff Don Eslinger displayed both a real 9 mm and the actual pellet gun used by the student, side by side. They were nearly identical in appearance. “We have an obligation — not only to the suspect, to the deputies and police officers, but obviously to those 1,100 students, staff and faculty here,” Eslinger said. The sheriff said SWAT team member Lt. Michael Weippert had positioned himself between Penley and two occupied classrooms. “(Penley) then raised his firearm in a tactical position and pointed it at Lt. Weippert, and Lt. Weippert decided to use deadly force,” Eslinger said.

Make no mistake please, the officer did what he was trained to do, he responded to a situation of deadly force, and shot the young man. I don’t blame the officer, he did exactly what he should have done. Under the same circumstances I would have done the same thing. The command is given, drop the weapon.
Well if you don’t drop it, chances are your going to die.

No one knows what was in Christopher’s mind last Friday, perhaps it was a prank gone bad,
maybe he was trying to be Joe cool, or Billy bad ass, we don’t know.

I do know this,we cannot train policemen to do their jobs, and then prosecute them for murder because we don’t like the outcome.