Parents of Milwee Middle student who was fatally shot lose in court:
You may remember the story a few years back about 15-year-old Christopher Penley from Milwee Middle School in Florida. He was the kid who took a realistic-looking pellet gun to school and used it to hold a student hostage then had a standoff with police.
In the ensuing standoff, Penley pointed the gun at police and was shot by Lt. Mike Weippert. Penley later died in the hospital after being declared brain-dead. Weippert was cleared of any wrongdoing.
Penley’s parents had filed a suit against the Seminole County Sheriff’s Department however a U.S. district judge recently threw the suit out of court.
U.S. District Judge Gregory Presnell on Monday issued a summary judgment, saying that Penley’s family was not entitled to any money from the sheriff’s office or Weippert.
Neither violated the boy’s constitutional rights, the judge wrote.
Weippert was within his rights to pull the trigger, the judge wrote, because he believed the boy was on the verge of shooting Weippert or someone else.
Again I feel bad for the Penley family but Christopher sealed his own fate by pointing the gun at police. That shooting in the shoulder stuff is only in TV and movies. In the real world, police are taught to aim for center mass.
Real Crime with Trench Reynolds 