The media would portray the the killing of Lawrence “Larry” King as a hate crime, I however see them are two victims in a not one sided crime. “Larry” King was living in a children’s shelter when the crime took place, as his biological dad and mom were both unfit to take care of him. He was a frequent target for bullying as he was gay. He was known to wear high heels and other feminine accessories. Brandon McInerney came from a broken home as his mother was addicted to methamphetamine and his dad was abusive toward his mother.

A day before the shooting Larry reportedly walked up to Brandon and asked him to be his valentine. Brandon was then bullied by his classmates for this. After lunchtime another incident occurred when Larry reportedly passed Brandon in a hallway and said to him “I love you baby”. This angered Brandon as he was bullied relentlessly by his peers after these incidents.

At this point Brandon then attempted to recruit other people to assault King but no one expressed interest in helping him. He then told another student to say goodbye to King because it would be last time she was ever going to see King. On the morning of February 28, 2008 Brandon and Larry were in a computer laboratory class when Brandon withdrew a .22 caliber revolver belonging to his relatives and shot King twice in the back of the head. Brandon then tossed the gun on the ground and left when he arrested five blocks away from the school. King was transported to St.John’s regional medical center where he died two days later.

On November 21, 2011 Brandon was sentenced as an adult and was given a sentence of 21 years with charges of second degree murder, voluntary manslaughter, and use of a firearm.

I in no way, shape, or form think that any child of his age should get off this easy. I think that the death penalty should be used for minors. The way I see it Brandon killed someone his own age that was defenseless. The victim had the rest of his life ahead of him, graduation, adulthood, having kids of his own. But he was killed in cold blood by one of his peers.

He was in only the eighth grade, middle school.

Sure some may say that they are just kids and that they control over their actions. But if a person has the ability to get up in the morning and get ready and walk to school, they have the ability to decide whether it is right to plot to kill somebody. If you have the ability to permanently end someone's life you should be charged as an adult. Although he did end up getting charged as an adult he sentence was much too little for what he did to this poor person.

No person deserves for this to happen to them no matter what age ethnicity, sexuality, or background.

You could go deeper than this by saying that Larry was killed because he was gay. But even without this it comes down to one thing: One young man killed another young man because he did not like him.

Either way the hate crime charges were dropped before he was sentenced.

In the defense case (Brandon’s case) it was stated that Brandon was bullied by Larry and that no one intervened when they saw what was going on. One of these people was assistant principal Joy Epstein who after seeing this happen to Brandon did nothing more than wag her finger at Brandon. After the sentencing all that the administrative staff could say was that they had failed Brandon and wish they would have done more. This would have been a good way to start the healing process but a further examination would show that the assistant principal was also gay. Which would lead me to believe that maybe she was on Larry’s side to avoid discrimination. This could be used as a counter argument but I would say that at the end of the day one teenager killed another teenager because of hate and an apology is not going to bring Brandon out of jail or bring back Larry.