is the cop missing a or their "backup gun," there used to have a tradition of carrying around a "backup gun", usually a gun that had little value something they would just throw away.....

No doubt, a small gun hidden between his left & right gluteus maximus, and a cop not willing to go there. Then again, if they had, some overprotective parent would likely have screamed about inappropriate touching of a 'child'. With males, 'child' ends at 14, if not before. Obviously this young man was capable of great violence.

Our society has WAY to many guns, with far to little control. With an ever increasing population, with larger proportions living in densely populated urban areas, we need to address the ease in which guns are purchase, and the responsibility of those owners.

Our society is being held hostage by a small percentage of very selfish people, who resist even the slightest bit of common sense, reasonable, responsible, gun control.

For starters, we need to eliminate the 'gun show' background check exemption. Nearly half of all guns are sold at gun 'shows', where anybody ... even the most violent criminals, and people with known metal issues... can purchase a gun.

Secondly: Gun owners must acept some level of reponsiblity for their weapons. In this instance, WHO owned this weapon? How did this young man come to possess this weapon, and bring it to a school? Did one of his parents allow him to control this weapon? If so, their lack of oversight seems criminal.

IF owners NEW they may be held responsible for the negligent use of their weapons, they would be much more likely to act with greater responsibility, regarding access to their weapons. I'm not suggesting a wave of prosecutions for negligence, simply that owners be prosecuted when their obvious negligence caused great harm. The mere possibility of prosecution would motivate owners to act with greater responsibility. This behavior change, alone, could save many lives.

The US has nearly one MILLION people in jail / prison for drug possession. Simply possessing a substance you may ingest is, by itself, a non-violent crime. IF one tenth of those people were released (say 100K nationwide, an average of 2K per state), possibly sentenced to community service, and replaced with half as many -- those who are responsible for contributing to violence -- this shift could dramatically decrease violence in our culture. This would be a vast improvement, while possibly even saving some money.

A certain level of gun ownership is reasonable. Having a gun to protect your household, if you so choose, is very reasonable. Sporting weapons, particularly one or two larger guns, for hunting and sport, are not a major cause of our urban violence. If your occupation / travel places you in danger, and you are a responsible person, concealed weapons permits are reasonable. We could allow fairly easy access to these types of weapons, WHILE eliminating 90% of our current stock.

Most of the weapons involved in violent loss of life are weapons purchased (obtained) with the intent of violence / intimidation or simply for 'showing off'. A small percentage of the population have large collections of guns, which are often very loosely controlled. If a hunter believes, for some reason, they need 20 assault type rifles, and 15 pistols, to 'hunt deer', then they have a responsibility to keep these weapons under their control (out of the hands of their children, for instance). Juvenile male brains are not a finished product. They are emotionally undeveloped and, at the same time, their blood is boiling with maximum levels of Testosterone. A VERY large percentage of gun violence comes from this group of males, 25 or younger. Parents / responsible adults/ gun owners ... need to take this into consideration

It is past time for the NRA types to give up their selfishness, and consider others. We need to do a better job of enforcing reasonable restrictions on access to weapons, in an effort to keep them out of the hands of those who would use them to commit offensive violence (including violence to themselves). Gun owners must be held accountable for access to their weapons. When/ if their conduct shows callous disregard for the safety of society, they should be prosecuted.

@ORD757 @AWORD-

You may never read this, and for that, I am sorry. This post is intended to address your comments re: anything is possible.

Upon reflection, yes, you are right. And, I did not desire to speak against the words of two veteran officers with 40+ years experience. Quite the contrary, you should be recognized and appreciated for so many years of public service.

Having had my own experiences as that relates to police protocol and body search, it is very difficult for me to comprehend the aforementioned news article. It is very possible that the news article is missing various items of information, or the news article is flawed by early reporting.

No, I do not know if the officer was in the patrol car, and that would certainly spin the discussion opposite to what I did say. Simply stated, I spoke before I had all the revelant information. I apologize to you both for that.

So, until the entire account of this unfortunate situation unfolds for clarity, I do thank you for your comments and your years of service.

How do you shoot yourself in the head if your hands are handcuffed behind your back?

First of all its almost impossible to shoot yourself in the head if you re handcuffed from behind.

The offender was probably non minority

The offender was probably handcuffed with his hands in the front

Being a non minority the offender was given a cursory pat down search instead of a through "man with a gun type" search

If the offender had beed a minority there would have been a large response of officers and a weapon would have been recovered.

harris county was a joke when i lived there 25 yrs ago i see it still is........

These cops are good... Must have had the gun deep up his sphincter hole

If anyone on this thread really, truly, believes that someone can shoot their self in the head no lees from the position of being handcuffed with hands behind the back then I have the cheapest shoreline real estate in Mid-Town Manhatten.......LMMFBAO!!!!!!!!!!!

About 15 years ago in Indianapolis, a 17 year old black male (think his last name was "Taylor") supposedly shot himself in the back of a squad car parked infront of the police station. No gang connection. A couple of really trivial misdemeaner arrests (more dumb teenager than criminal). What I do remember is that the gun was a long barreled .32 revolver supposedly hidden in his high tops. Investigation was closed quicikly, and not really convincing.

Won't make any guesses as to what happened here, but unless the weapon was a small caliber pocket pistol, self inflicted does seem rather remote.

He shot himself in the back of the head in the back of a cop car while handcuffed!

I find this really hard to believe and even harder to believe while reading hundreds of reports every week where cops are shooting and beating unarmed suspects to death. They all get off and it seems to becoming an epidemic of sorts because there is no accountability.

how the hell do cops search a high school student TWICE and not find a gun??? something sounds iffy here....are the cops really not man enough to say they did a poor job searching? i'd like to know what kind of gun he shot himself with to determine the size...

Wait a minute--let me get this straight; police officers were called to the school because of reports of a student with a firearm and the police failed to find it when they frisked him? Okay, then let me ask if they didn't retrieve the hand gun on what grounds did they hand cuff and arrest this kid? I mean, that goes beyond comprehension that the officers wouldn't confiscate the firearm before handcuffing the kid. Major, major screw up.

I think the cops shot the kid and planted the gun?

First off if you have ever been pulled over and searched you know that a cop pretty much feels you up grabs your junk and everything else goes in your pockets double checks your waist and than goes around both legs to your ankles and than back up to your torso. Also you cant shoot yourself with cuffs behind your back go ahead and try because the way your cuffed with your wrist facing outward makes clasping a gun impossible. Third, dont you think if you magically somehow had a gun you would shoot the officers than shoot out the window to escape. Why shoot yourself if you have a gun and both officers are facing forward away from you.

Ridiculous, nasty lies. He wised off to the cops and they shot him while he was cuffed. End of story. Sue 'em!

FIRST: The press misrepresent the word "SEARCH", the boy was not searched, he received a "pat down frisk" which is pat down by officers hands on outer garments to "feel" for weapons.This is semi invasive and not a search.

A search is when you disrobe the suspect, feel through his clothing, empty his pockets and view all parts of his body for hidden items.

Depending on the size of the weapon, many smaller handguns can be easily hidden in the groin area without visual indicaters.

Plus the fact that many officers fail to perform proper pat down frisks, and since the suspect was a minor the officers might have been leery of a full pat down for political blow back.

My question would be DID he purposely shot himself, or maybe accidently shoot himself while trying to remove the weapon and secrete it in the police vehicle back seat to avoid its detection.

A lot of items have been deposited under the rear seat, which is why good officers check it at begining of shift and after every suspect exits.

The kid was white so all the racist comments are hysterical. He was blonde haired, blue eyed baseball player ( his twitter was posted on a Houston news stations comments section). Doubtful the cops killed him. Why? He was a suicidal teen. Though the official story is fishy. Likely he was never searched.

On TV shows the officers are in jeopardy of losing their jobs, mainly because the officers and any people they come in contact with are exposed. As a rule other officers don''t appreciate that. I wonder what will happen to the officers that arrested the student?

How did the cops not find the gun on this kid's possession? Another case where our men in blue messed up royally. Let them explain this to the kids parents. I'd rather see my kid possibly in jail rather than dead!!!!

Breaking News:

Boy Locked in Safe Eats Own Foot

If the kid was searched, as the cops claimed, they (cops) should be fired for negligence and gross incompetence.

This is ridiculous, I for one am tired of hearing how stuff like this happens but they were searched. I youre going to serch a kid who coiuld possibely possess a fire arm do it thouroghly!

COPS ARE CRIMINALS WITH BADGES. The Police - the baddest, most powerful, most organize gang in the country. Most cops are the bullies from high school who enjoy their power, enjoy abusing it, enjoy making other people suffer.

Oh my God, I can't believe all of the people who know everything on this site. All of those who KNOW what is possible and impossible. All of those who believe there is some big conspiracy where the police come up with these grandiose plans to "rub out" the citizens who make us angry. It would be funny but for the fact you people actually believe these CRAZY ideas!!

To those who KNOW, or more realistically "think", this can't be done. How many people have you had regular contact with who are drunk, high, at the worst point of their life, extremely flexible, intent on hurting themselves or someone else or mentally ill. Probably not very many or else you would not be making such STUPID comments. Those of us who see things like this on a regular basis know that almost anything is possible. It would be easy for me to say I've seen it all: people who sexually assault children; someone who cowardly murders children, their mother and and then kills himself and then the family dogs begin to eat the bodies after a couple days because they haven't been fed; people who murder police officers simply because they don't "like" the police; people who light a home on fire at midnight with people still inside; people who beat their infants and at times killing them; people who beat the elderly who are helpless; people who get their arms to their frontside after being handcuffed behind their back; people who shimy through the opening of the plexiglass partition of a patrol car and then steal the patrol car; someone who has sex with his mother-in-law who is in a nursing home with dimentia; and I could go on and on. Unfortunately I know I have not seen it all and there will be someone who will top these heinous acts. SO, TO THOSE WHO KNOW THIS TEENAGER COULD NOT HAVE SHOT HIMSELF WHILE CUFFED BEHIND HIS BACK--YOU DON'T KNOW ANYTHING!!

To those who think this is some big conspiracy and believe people should shoot police officers first because we may hurt you, YOU SCARE ME! Absolutely there are some bad cops, just like there are bad citizens, bad doctors, bad anyone else. Part of the reason police can't trust anyone when we are working is because of people like you. We never know when someone will try to hurt us or kill us and because of that, we have to look at everyone as that one person who will try to make our children fatherless or motherless. If you think this is an extreme belief, ask the families of those officers who have been murdered. Unfortunately, I can give you references. Unless you have done this job for a period of time, you can never truly understand. It's just like you trying to tell a soldier who has been in combat that you understand--you can't.

People do hide guns in their crotches or down the back of their pants. I know because I have found them there and they are not always "easy" to find. I do get up close and personal during my searches with male prisoners and it is because of this I have found those weapons. Not every officer finds them--for whatever reason. Officers have been murdered by suspects when a gun was missed on the search after arrest. One suspect, with his hands cuffed behind his back and in the backseat of a patrol car with the door closed, was able to get a gun out of the back of his waistband and shoot the gun through the door stiking an officer next to the car. The bullet struck the officer between his vest panels killing him! What are the chances??!! I bet a lot of people on here "know" that couldn't be done either, but it did and an officer paid with his life. These are tragic situations when a gun is missed and in the Arkansas and Texas cases, the only "good thing" is that the people decided to only shoot themselves and not the officers.

Officers are only human and sometimes mistakes are made, this fact will never change. Almost all of us want to do a good job for the communities we live in and work for. (I didn't say all of us because as I said earlier there are a few bad cops.) We go to work everyday/night trying to do our best for you, but remember there are people out there who are trying trick us, hide things from us and hurt us; so, if a mistake is made wait for all the facts to come in before you try to hang us! And if we did make a mistake, maybe, just maybe try to see it from our point of view. Remember, when you call for help we are willing to put our lives on the line to help you--a complete stranger to us and our families.

Thank you to all those who support your police!

Although I find it hard to believe that 3 Caucasian young men could find a way to hide a weapon from the officer. then take that weapon from it's hiding place only to shoot themselves in the head while handcuffed behind their back while setting in the rear of the squad car... If we don't wake up there will be lots more of these human rights violations. Most of these officers are trained by one company. God BLESS America