15 year old student shot down by police

On Wednesday, 15-year-old Jaime Gonzalez had walked into a Cummings Middle School classroom and punched another boy in the nose.

He was subsequently gunned down by police officers in the hallway of his Texas middle school Wednesday after brandishing a pellet gun that looked like a firearm as he refused repeated orders to lower the weapon. Two officers fired three shots, striking Gonzalez at least twice, said a witness.

The carbon-dioxide powered pellet gun he was holding looked like a handgun, and the initial report to police that sent officers rushing to Cummings Middle School Wednesday morning was for a student seen holding a gun, Orlando Rodriguez, Brownsville's interim police chief, clarified.

Robert Valle, a 13-year-old who was among the school's 750 students locked down in their classrooms during the confrontation, said he heard police run down the hallway and yell "put the gun down," before several shots were fired.

"He had plenty of opportunities to lower the weapon ... and he didn't want to," Rodriguez said.

The autopsy results are pending.

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