Police Fatally Shoot Texas Eighth-Grader

An armed eighth-grader at his Texas middle school was shot and killed by police on Jan. 4, after he “engaged the officers,” officials said.
Police Fatally Shoot Texas Eighth-Grader
1/4/2012
Updated:
1/4/2012

An armed eighth-grader at his Texas middle school was shot and killed by police on Jan. 4, after he “engaged the officers,” officials said.

“The student engaged the officers and was shot,” stated the police department in Brownsville, Texas, according to CNN.

The 15-year-old student, who was not named, was taken away in an ambulance shortly after and was pronounced dead at a local hospital, a spokesperson with the local government told CNN.

“The subject pointed the weapon at officers, which in turn, the officers had to use deadly force,” Brownsville police department spokesperson J.J. Trevino told Reuters.

The incident unfolded after a school administrator saw the boy carrying a rifle and then called the district police, according to Reuters television. The school was then placed on lockdown.

The student was shot three times by police, according to the news agency. No other students or employees were injured. “That is still under investigation as to a reason why he was in possession of that particular weapon,” Trevino said.