Wake for Texas teen killed by cops draws hundreds
Jan 6, 2012, 3:03 AM
Associated Press
BROWNSVILLE, Texas (AP) – Hundreds of people have attended a wake for a Texas eighth-grader who was fatally shot by police who thought the boy was brandishing a handgun at school.
Police later learned 15-year-old Jaime (HYE’-meh) Gonzalez was holding a pellet gun Wednesday inside Cummings Middle School in Brownsville.
A long line of mourners filed past his open casket Thursday night at Holy Family Catholic Church. His stepmother, Noralva Gonzalez, sobbed as she embraced each visitor.
The Rev. Jorge (HOHR’-hay) Gomez apologized to the young people among the 400 mourners, saying “it is our fault as adults that the world is the way it is now.”
Dozens of young teens wearing white shirts sat in the pews and lined the back wall of the church, then gathered outside and chanted the boy’s name.
(Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
