The Tragic Death of Lawrence King.

Lawrence King, a 15-year-old student at E.O. Green Junior High School in Oxnard, CA, already had it pretty rough. He was a foster child who lived in a home for troubled and abused children. And then he came out to his classmates as gay several weeks ago, wearing makeup and jewelry, and drawing the scorn of some of his peers who teased him for being effeminate.

Brandon McInerney, an eighth grader and a solid student, was one of his tormentors. The day after getting into an argument with King about his sexual orientation, McInerney pulled out a gun in an English class full of students and shot King in the head, before fleeing.

King was on life support, though brain dead. His parents recently removed him from life support to donate his organs.

McInerney was arrested and charged with premeditated murder and held on $770,000 bail. He faces a sentence of 50 years to life in prison, as well as a hate crime statute that would tack on another three years to his sentence.

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Gene "G.D." Demby is the founder and editor of PostBourgie. In his day job, he blogs and reports on race and ethnicity for NPR's Code Switch team.
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