Lawyer Blames School For Shooting

International News, By Christian Taylor, 9th May, 2008

Brandon McInerney, the 14 year old who shot fellow student Lawrence King in the back of the head in February this year will face court to formally hear the charges against him. According to the Los Angeles Times, his lawyer – William Quest, is trying to offload part of the blame for the shooting onto the school.

Quest believes that the school should have done more to minimise the tension between the two students, which began when King began flirting with McInerney. Quest says that the school was too focused on allowing King to explore his sexuality. They allowed him to come to school wearing “female accessories” and make up and they weren’t managing the problems that his behaviour was causing.

“Brandon is not some crazed lunatic,” says Quest. “If there is partial blame in other places, let’s not throw away Brandon for the rest of his life… We think there will be evidence that the school, with the actions of Larry, didn’t quite know how to deal with it.”

McInerney has been in Juvenile Hall since the shooting. Prosecutors are pushing to have him trialled as an adult, but whether this is possible is still being debated. In California minors can be incarcerated until they turn 25 – then they have to be released. If he’s trialled as an adult he’s looking at 50 years to life. They could tack three years on top of that for it being a hate crime.

A spokesperson from the school says that they were definitely aware of the problems between the students and they were dealing with it.

It would seem that Quest’s argument is all about blaming the victim. If King didn’t want to be different, if the school didn’t allow him to express himself, then he wouldn’t have prompted a response from McInerney. It would seem that the ‘gay panic’ defence is alive and well.

While it’s definitely a complex situation, it’s pretty safe to say that students can’t go around shooting each other in the head – no matter what the reason, right? Quite frankly, if shooting another person at point blank range doesn’t qualify you as a “crazed lunatic”, what does?

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