Hudspeth County(TX) sheriff's deputies and state game wardens shot and killed a 14-year-boy after he ran away from home, stopped at a ranch and then allegedly fired at officers who wanted to take him home.



Hudspeth County Sheriff Arvin West said the deadly confrontation started as a simple search for a runaway. The boy had left his family's ranch in Hudspeth County on Saturday and was reported missing by his parents Sunday.



West said authorities had problems with the boy at school in the past in the desolate county east of El Paso County. The boy's name had not been released.



A Texas Department of Public Safety news release stated an initial investigation by the Texas Rangers found the teen had broken into a deer camp at Gunsight Ranch, about 20 miles north of Sierra Blanca.



West said one of his deputies and a Texas Parks and Wildlife game warden found the boy at a hunters' camp at Gunsight Ranch.



"They told him (the boy) they were looking for him," West said. "He said 'That's me.' They said, 'Your parents are concerned about you. You need to come with us.' The boy then drew a weapon."



The boy had a rifle and a handgun and refused to go. The teen then allegedly fired shots as the officers retreated.



According to the Texas DPS account, the boy fired several shots and fled to another camp. Officers followed him to the second camp, urging him to put down the weapons but the boy continued firing. He ran to a third spot, where he climbed to the top of a barn and shot at officers.



Dozens of shots were fired in an area spanning a mile and a half, West said. At one point, deputies brought the boy's mother to the scene to try to get her son to surrender, but the teen took a shot at her, West said.



"The officers backed off, backed off and backed off. He finally got them where they couldn't back off anymore," West said.



The end came while the boy was atop the roof of the barn and took aim at a game warden.



"He had a clear shot at a game warden," West said. Fearing for the game warden's life, law enforcement officers fired and shot the boy, who died at the scene. The officers were not hurt.



Five law enforcement officers –– two deputies and three game wardens –– were involved in the confrontation, West said.



The names of the deputies were not immediately released. One of the deputies involved in the shooting has been with the Hudspeth County Sheriff's Office for five or six years. The other deputy has been with the agency for about a year.



The shooting is under investigation by the Texas Rangers, the Texas Department of Public Safety and the El Paso District Attorney's Office. The El Paso district attorney investigates all officer-involved shootings and has jurisdiction on felonies in El Paso, Hudspeth and Culberson counties in far West Texas.

Teen shot by deputies was gun expert

By Maggie Ybarra \ El Paso Times

Posted: 04/07/2010 12:00:00 AM MDT





The 14-year-old boy killed in a shootout Sunday was an experienced hunter with dreams of becoming a West Texas rancher, his mother said.



Anthony Lucas was raised to respect guns and hunting laws, Kay Lucas said Tuesday.



Lucas said her son had a strong moral compass that he used when he hunted. He shot only bucks and learned everything he could about hunting from magazines.



"He wasn't a reader," she said. "He hated school, but he would get those little hunting magazines and he'd read everything on those."



Anthony learned to use guns at a young age, Kay Lucas said.



"He got his first BB gun when he was 7 years old, and then we moved him up to a .22 (pistol)," she said. "We have a gun safe and an adult was with him the majority of the time."



Anthony had three stolen handguns with him the day he was shot by sheriff's de puties and state game wardens at Gunsight Ranch in Hudspeth County, Kay Lucas said.



But he was only using those guns to keep the officers at bay, she said.



"If he had wanted to shoot those officers and hit them, he would have," she said. "He knew he was a good shot, and a majority of those officers knew him and knew he was."



Hudspeth County Sheriff Arvin West said Tuesday that Anthony had been shooting at the officers from the roof of a barn, and that officers fired back in self-defense.



Anthony had been reported missing by his parents earlier that day.



Reports varied on the types of guns the teen used during the shootout. West said Monday that Anthony had a handgun and a rifle. On Tuesday, West said Anthony had "several guns." Kay Lucas said her son had two .22-caliber pistols and a .25-caliber handgun.



Kay Lucas said that no other people were endangered during the shootout and that if the officers had left Anthony alone, he would have eventually become hungry, tired or taken his pills.



Before the shooting, Anthony had broken into two homes at the Gunsight Ranch, Kay Lucas said.



"He broke a window and he went into Kevin Jessup's house, took a shower and ate a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, and tried to watch a Western movie but couldn't get the VCR to work," she said.



Anthony took the guns during the break-ins, she said.



When law enforcement officers found her son, he pointed one of the guns at them and told them to get away. He shot at them to scare them off, Kay Lucas said.



West said the officers backed away from Anthony and returned to their patrol cars, and that's when Anthony started shooting at them.



The decision to kill Anthony was made only after he endangered an officer's life, West said.



Anthony was standing on a barn roof and the officers were on the ground near a horse trailer about 30 yards from the barn when he was killed, West said.



"They decided they had to stop him before he shot that officer," he said.



West said his officers were devastated by the shooting death.



"They're not OK," he said. "That's not something any officer wants to do –– take the life of a child."



Before the shooting, officers had taken Kay Lucas out to the site in an attempt to calm Anthony.



Anthony's mother pleaded with him over a PA system, but he eventually fired a shot at her, too, West said.



Kay Lucas said her son's hearing impairment might have hindered his ability to understand what the police wanted from him.



He had tubes put in his ears twice and sometimes had to focus on lip movements to get the gist of what someone was saying. He also had bad vision and took medicine for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, Kay Lucas said.



She said he was not taking his medicine before the shooting.



Perhaps if Anthony had been on his medicine, the situation would have ended differently, said Joseph Elder, a local store owner.



Elder, 33, said Anthony was a "wild little country boy" who liked to hunt rabbits and live on the land.



But without his medicine, he was unpredictable, Elder said.



"In a way, he was like a little coyote," he said. "He knew how to take care of himself ... but he got off his medication, and he had been off his medication going on two days, and that's too long."



Elder said the circumstances surrounding the shooting death of Anthony were tragic.



"He was scared to death," he said, "and the officers were probably scared to death, too."

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Wow. Amazing restraint by those officers for not taking him out a lot sooner. I was expecting to read that they immediately shot and killed him as soon as he drew a weapon at the first location.

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Unfortunate for the kid and family but it seems like it was necessary.

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Good shoot.  

Seriously, I'm glad he was put down because an idiot like that was eventually going to kill someone who wasn't capable of defending themselves.

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Just a damn sad situation. The uncaring and heartless attitude here doesnt really surprise me int he least though, I rather expect it. Well done on being a pack of heartless assholes.



Godo shot or not, doesnt mean you gloat about a 14 year old off his medicine whos been killed in a shoot out with police. What the fuck is wrong with some of you?

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http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b53/vanilla_gorilla911/blah-1.gif

Sucks that the cop had to do it, and I hope it doesn't affect him to much. Other than that, oh well...

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Just a damn sad situation. The uncaring and heartless attitude here doesnt really surprise me int he least though, I rather expect it. Well done on being a pack of heartless assholes.

Godo shot or not, doesnt mean you gloat about a 14 year old off his medicine whos been killed in a shoot out with police. What the fuck is wrong with some of you?

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Just a damn sad situation. The uncaring and heartless attitude here doesnt really surprise me int he least though, I rather expect it. Well done on being a pack of heartless assholes.

Godo shot or not, doesnt mean you gloat about a 14 year old off his medicine whos been killed in a shoot out with police. What the fuck is wrong with some of you?

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I'm not gloating, I'm just glad he's dead so I don't have to worry about him shooting up me or any of my family members. If someone needs medicine to keep them from being homicidal it's best to just put them down.

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Just a damn sad situation. The uncaring and heartless attitude here doesnt really surprise me int he least though, I rather expect it. Well done on being a pack of heartless assholes.

Godo shot or not, doesnt mean you gloat about a 14 year old off his medicine whos been killed in a shoot out with police. What the fuck is wrong with some of you?

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Please point out said gloating.  I seem to have missed it.  

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Live free or die.

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Darwin claims another one.

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Darwin claims another one.

allegedly fired at officers  

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Just a damn sad situation. The uncaring and heartless attitude here doesnt really surprise me int he least though, I rather expect it. Well done on being a pack of heartless assholes.



Godo shot or not, doesnt mean you gloat about a 14 year old off his medicine whos been killed in a shoot out with police. What the fuck is wrong with some of you?

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Oh, for goodness sakes.

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Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand the mother weighs in!

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Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand the mother weighs in!

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just something I noticed in the article that I found a bit funny.  So, .22 or under is a pistol, but .25 and up is a handgun?
 

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+1  Methinks someone has sand in their mangina today.
 

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Just a damn sad situation. The uncaring and heartless attitude here doesnt really surprise me int he least though, I rather expect it. Well done on being a pack of heartless assholes.

Godo shot or not, doesnt mean you gloat about a 14 year old off his medicine whos been killed in a shoot out with police. What the fuck is wrong with some of you?

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22's are harmless didnt you know that. and a 25 is like a freaking nuke to these people

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Oh, for goodness sakes.

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How did I know this was the case before even reading the story?