15-year-old middle school student Christopher Penley was shot by police Friday morning after holding a fellow student hostage at gunpoint.
Christopher Penley, a 15-year-old student at Milwee Middle School, Longwood Fl., showed up at school between the hours of 9 and 9:30 a.m. brandishing a pellet pistol.
Another student, attracted by the commotion, approached Penley and mistook the pellet gun for a real high-powered pistol. When the student panicked, Penley pointed the gun at the student's neck and announced he was taking the student hostage. Penley tried to force the student into a closet.
When school officials arrived at the classroom, Penley, seeing that he was not in control of the situation, fled the classroom, pursued by school staff. School staff summoned the police.
Penley ran to an outdoor bathroom facility and hid inside. Eventually four police helicopters, a tank, and a SWAT team in full riot gear arrived on the school grounds. Police shut down all traffic in the area and made their way through the crowds to surround the trapped youth.
The SWAT team, led by Lieutenant Michael Weippert, positioned itself in hallways and classrooms around the bathroom building, trying to get a clear line of sight to the youth. Sources report that Penley said he was going to die "one way or another," so police decided that he posed a real threat to the safety of the police and the crowd.
After moving around erratically inside the bathroom, Penley stepped into full view of the police and waved his gun at them. Lt. Weippert then decided that the use of deadly force was justified, and Penley was shot by a deputy.
The injured boy was rushed to Orlando Regional Hospital for emergency treatment.
This is the second hostage stand-off in Central Florida in less than a week. Recently a failed bank-robbery attempt in Kissimmee Florida, half-a-mile from Disney World, turned into a hostage situation which left one would-be bank robber dead.
The two incidents have created a high level of concern in usually peaceful Central Florida, a sunny vacation destination better known for the "House of the Mouse" than violent shoot-outs or Columbine-style school violence. Residents are calling talk radio shows and other media outlets asking, "What is going wrong and why?"
Some students, deeply concerned by the day's events, took time to express their views.
"He should thought about what he was doing before did it. If you bring a gun even a fake gun to school what do you think will happen? The SWAT team was trying to protect themselves," said sixteen-year-old Crystal H. who attends Quest academy in Orlando, Fl.
When asked about her safety she added, "In a way I feel safe and sometimes I don't. I hope that nothing like this happens in my school!" When asked what advice she had for those involved in today's incident she said, "Just trust in God, it will be alright."
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