RENO, Nev. (AP) – About 100 classmates, friends and family of a 14-year-old Reno boy who was shot by a school district police officer marched to the district headquarters Wednesday afternoon to protest the use of lethal force on the high school campus.
Demick La Flamme, the father of a friend of the hospitalized boy, led the 2-mile march and delivered a petition to school officials demanding campus officers carry Tasers and pepper spray.
Police say the teen was threatening others with knives when he was shot in the chest Dec. 7 while surrounded by dozens of students in a school courtyard. He last was reported in critical but stable condition.
The boy’s lawyer, David Houston, said earlier he was in a medically induced coma after undergoing surgery for a stroke on Friday.
District officials have refused to say if campus officers typically carry non-lethal weapons. They say they can’t comment while an investigation continues into the officer-involved shooting that many Hug High School students captured on cellphone video and posted on social media.