Eighth-grader holding pellet gun shot at school

BROWNSVILLE, Texas – Police shot and killed an eighth-grader in the hallway of his middle school Wednesday after the boy brandished what looked like a handgun and pointed it at officers. It turned out to be a pellet gun that closely resembled the real thing.

Fifteen-year-old Jaime Gonzalez “had plenty of opportunities to lower the gun and listen to the officers’ orders, and he didn’t want to,” Interim Police Chief Orlando Rodriguez said.

Shortly before the confrontation, the boy had walked into a classroom and punched a boy in the nose for no apparent reason, police said. Investigators did not know why he pulled out the weapon.

“We think it looks like this was a way to bring attention to himself,” the police chief said. He said the officers’ actions were justified and no one else was hurt.

The shooting happened during first period at Cummings Middle School in Brownsville. Teachers locked classroom doors and turned off lights, and some frightened students dove under their desks. They could hear police charge down the hallway and shout for Gonzalez to drop the weapon, followed by several shots.

Two officers fired three shots, hitting Gonzalez at least twice, police said.

The boy’s father, Jaime Gonzalez Sr., said he had no idea where his son got the gun or why he brought it to school.

“We wouldn’t give him a gift like that,” he told the Associated Press from the family’s home, where other relatives and friends of his son were gathering Wednesday night.

He said he last saw his son Wednesday morning, when the boy said goodbye before leaving to catch the bus to school.