Every year, nearly 3000 children and teens die from gunfire, and nearly 14,000 are injured.

Saturday, September 29, 2012

14-year old Santa Ana boy commits "suicide-by-cop" using shotgun

Jose Rodriguez Jr., age 14
Police in Santa Ana, California, responded to a 911 call about a suspicious person with a gun.  When they arrived, they found 14-year old Jose Rodriguez Jr. holding a shotgun.  Both the police and family members yelled for him to drop the gun, but he instead raised it at police.  The police then shot.  He later died.

It turns out that Jose had been the one to call 911.  A suicide note was found in his room.

From an article and video:
When they arrived, they saw a male standing on the north side of Wisteria holding a pistol-gripped shotgun, Cpl. Anthony Bertagna said. 
Officers ordered him to drop the weapon, but instead he pointed the shotgun in their direction, Bertagna said.
The officers fired an unknown number of shots at the teen, wounding him. 
The teen, identified as Jose Rodriguez Jr. of Santa Ana, was taken to a trauma center, where he later died. 
Bertagna said investigators are trying to determine why Rodriguez would have of a shotgun and why he called police. 
"Based on scene evidence, Rodriguez is the person who called 911 reporting a man with a gun," said Bertagna, who declined to elaborate. 
After obtaining a search warrant for the boy's room, officers discovered a suicide note, according to Bertagna.
Its contents were not made public. 
Rodriguez, a freshman at Segerstrom High School, was a good student with good attendance, said Deidra Powell, a Santa Ana Unified School District spokeswoman.
The article did not say where Jose had gotten the shotgun.

Every gun in the hands of a child must first pass through the hands of an adult.

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