This is Sad....
A boy was murdered because he was openly gay. It just breaks my heart to see stuff like this...
He was fifteen. Bright kid. Great smile. Handsome. Fun to be around. Settling into the eighth grade-and, apparently, finally comfortable enough with who he was to “come out” to his classmates.
Larry King’s fellow pupils at E.O. Green Junior High in Oxnard, California, said the bullying started after Larry wore mascara, lipstick and jewelry to school one day in early February.
“They teased him because he was different,” 13-year-old classmate Marissa Moreno said. “But he wasn’t afraid to show himself.”
It was February 12, twenty-four of his fellow students around him, as Larry was in the school’s computer lab attending class and his alleged attacker, Brandon McInerney, walked into the room and, just like that, shot Larry in the head.
Brandon ran.
He was caught a few blocks away from the school some time later.
Prosecutors are charging the case as a hate crime.
Brandon is just fourteen.
Fourteen years old and an alleged murderer already.
The 9-1-1 call is chilling. First, teachers think Larry King shot himself. Or maybe another student did it. Or perhaps there’s a student walking through the school on a rampage.
No one seemed to know what happened.
Either way, Larry was on the floor, bleeding, while the school went into lockdown.
Last week, hundreds of mourners showed up at the Westminster Presbyterian Church to remember Larry. “God knit Larry together and made him wonderfully complex,” the Reverend Dan Birchfield told a tearful crowd. “Larry was a masterpiece.”
Larry King had just recently admitted he was gay, classmates told the New York Times, even though he was “enduring harassment from a group of schoolmates, including the 14-year-old boy charged in his death,” Larry didn’t back down.
Larry wore mascara and high heels to school. He was effeminate. He’d decided it wasn’t worth hiding who he was any longer-and it cost him his life.
Such has been the impact of the case, presidential contenders Clinton and Obama released statements just the other day.
Clinton said:
I was deeply saddened by the recent death of 15-year-old Lawrence King who was killed at his school in Oxnard, CA. No one should face intimidation or violence, particularly at school, because of their sexual orientation or the way they express their gender identity.
Obama added:
It was heartbreaking to learn about Lawrence King’s death, and my thoughts and prayers go out to his family. King’s senseless death is a tragic example of the corrosive effect that bigotry and fear can have in our society. It’s also an urgent reminder that we need to do more in our schools to foster tolerance and an acceptance of diversity; that we must enact a federal hate crimes law that protects all LGBT Americans; and that we must recommit ourselves to becoming active and engaged parents, citizens and neighbors, so that bias and bigotry cannot take hold in the first place. We all have a responsibility to help this nation live up to its founding promise of equality for all.
Why does everything have to be so scripted and taken as some sort of opportunity to spew your political views-especially during an election? Why can’t we have two candidates reacting to this terrible tragedy through their hearts, without their comments going through a presidential sifter?
It’s disgusts me.
But anyway, the shooting, as one might guess, bewildered residents of Oxnard, which until then seemed to be an uncomplicated, peaceful beach community just north of Malibu.
Prosecutors charged Brandon as an adult. It was a “murder as a premeditated hate crime and gun possession,” officials said. If convicted, Brandon faces a sentence of 52 years to life in prison.
If he served those 52, he’d be 66 upon his release.
According to the Times:
Lawrence wore his favorite high-heeled boots most days, riding the bus to school from Casa Pacifica, a center for abused and neglected children in the foster care system, where he began living last fall. Officials would not say anything about his family background other than that his parents, Greg and Dawn King, were living and that he had four siblings. Lawrence started attending E. O. Green last winter, said Steven Elson, the center’s chief executive. “He had made connections here,” Dr. Elson said. “It’s just a huge trauma here. It’s emotionally very charged.”
We at Crime Rant encourage everyone to visit www.rememberlarry.com and post a comforting note to Larry’s family and friends.
Source
Why would someone do that? There are some really sick, sick people out there.
He was fifteen. Bright kid. Great smile. Handsome. Fun to be around. Settling into the eighth grade-and, apparently, finally comfortable enough with who he was to “come out” to his classmates.
Larry King’s fellow pupils at E.O. Green Junior High in Oxnard, California, said the bullying started after Larry wore mascara, lipstick and jewelry to school one day in early February.
“They teased him because he was different,” 13-year-old classmate Marissa Moreno said. “But he wasn’t afraid to show himself.”
It was February 12, twenty-four of his fellow students around him, as Larry was in the school’s computer lab attending class and his alleged attacker, Brandon McInerney, walked into the room and, just like that, shot Larry in the head.
Brandon ran.
He was caught a few blocks away from the school some time later.
Prosecutors are charging the case as a hate crime.
Brandon is just fourteen.
Fourteen years old and an alleged murderer already.
The 9-1-1 call is chilling. First, teachers think Larry King shot himself. Or maybe another student did it. Or perhaps there’s a student walking through the school on a rampage.
No one seemed to know what happened.
Either way, Larry was on the floor, bleeding, while the school went into lockdown.
Last week, hundreds of mourners showed up at the Westminster Presbyterian Church to remember Larry. “God knit Larry together and made him wonderfully complex,” the Reverend Dan Birchfield told a tearful crowd. “Larry was a masterpiece.”
Larry King had just recently admitted he was gay, classmates told the New York Times, even though he was “enduring harassment from a group of schoolmates, including the 14-year-old boy charged in his death,” Larry didn’t back down.
Larry wore mascara and high heels to school. He was effeminate. He’d decided it wasn’t worth hiding who he was any longer-and it cost him his life.
Such has been the impact of the case, presidential contenders Clinton and Obama released statements just the other day.
Clinton said:
I was deeply saddened by the recent death of 15-year-old Lawrence King who was killed at his school in Oxnard, CA. No one should face intimidation or violence, particularly at school, because of their sexual orientation or the way they express their gender identity.
Obama added:
It was heartbreaking to learn about Lawrence King’s death, and my thoughts and prayers go out to his family. King’s senseless death is a tragic example of the corrosive effect that bigotry and fear can have in our society. It’s also an urgent reminder that we need to do more in our schools to foster tolerance and an acceptance of diversity; that we must enact a federal hate crimes law that protects all LGBT Americans; and that we must recommit ourselves to becoming active and engaged parents, citizens and neighbors, so that bias and bigotry cannot take hold in the first place. We all have a responsibility to help this nation live up to its founding promise of equality for all.
Why does everything have to be so scripted and taken as some sort of opportunity to spew your political views-especially during an election? Why can’t we have two candidates reacting to this terrible tragedy through their hearts, without their comments going through a presidential sifter?
It’s disgusts me.
But anyway, the shooting, as one might guess, bewildered residents of Oxnard, which until then seemed to be an uncomplicated, peaceful beach community just north of Malibu.
Prosecutors charged Brandon as an adult. It was a “murder as a premeditated hate crime and gun possession,” officials said. If convicted, Brandon faces a sentence of 52 years to life in prison.
If he served those 52, he’d be 66 upon his release.
According to the Times:
Lawrence wore his favorite high-heeled boots most days, riding the bus to school from Casa Pacifica, a center for abused and neglected children in the foster care system, where he began living last fall. Officials would not say anything about his family background other than that his parents, Greg and Dawn King, were living and that he had four siblings. Lawrence started attending E. O. Green last winter, said Steven Elson, the center’s chief executive. “He had made connections here,” Dr. Elson said. “It’s just a huge trauma here. It’s emotionally very charged.”
We at Crime Rant encourage everyone to visit www.rememberlarry.com and post a comforting note to Larry’s family and friends.
Source
Why would someone do that? There are some really sick, sick people out there.