By: TAYLOR LAMBERT
On April 12th in Knoxville, Tennessee, a student was fatally shot by police and an officer was also injured. Anthony Thompson, a 17 year-old student at Austin-East Magnet High School was shot twice in the chest due to an altercation involving him and officers responding to a call from his ex-girlfriend’s mother. Thompson had allegedly had a dispute with his ex which is why her mother was calling to report the domestic abuse; it is alleged that Thompson was known to carry a gun. When the student arrived home after the incident, her mother called the police and explained what had happened. Responding officers proceeded to question mother and child in their home before making their way over to the high school to detain Thompson. Once on scene, officers found Thompson in a bathroom on campus with a fellow student where they proceeded to detain him. Whilst attempting to put him in handcuffs, officers believed he was reaching into his pocket to grab the gun that he had carried with him to school that day. In an attempt to “save themselves” an officer shot Thompson in the shoulder and again in the chest once he was on the ground; another officer was shot in the hip by the officer shooting but at the time it was believed that Thompson had fired off the round that hit the man in the hip. In the police body-cam footage, the other student that was in the bathroom at the time was screaming at the officers that Thompson was bleeding and begging them to help him. Thompson died on scene and it was reported that there was nothing anyone could have done to save his life.
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