shooting at school (El Paso, Beaumont, Del Rio: condo, home, neighborhood)

[southernbliss]

Chapin senior slain: Fort Bliss soldier accused in teen's death

By Zahira Torres / El Paso Times
Posted: 04/24/2009 10:40:42 PM MDT


Click photo to enlarge http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site525/2009/0424/20090424__0425-a1-shooting~1_Viewer.jpg (broken link)




Friends and classmates of Chapin High School student Ezra Gerald... (Mark Lambie / El Paso Times)

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Related: Specialist held in fatal shooting is from Del Rio

FORT BLISS -- A Chapin High School student who would have graduated in June was shot and killed Friday morning, allegedly by a soldier whose motive remained a mystery.
The bullet felled Ezra Gerald Smith, 18, who was riding his bike to school in a military housing area near Fort Bliss. Army Spc. Gerald Polanco allegedly shot Smith dead about 7:50 a.m., Fort Bliss officials said.
http://extras.mnginteractive.com/live/media/site525/2009/0424/20090424__0425-a1-shooting~2.jpg (broken link) Ezra Gerald Smith


Polanco, 37, also was charged with shooting and wounding another soldier.
Polanco was in a home when he allegedly opened fire. Both victims were outside, said Maj. Gen. Howard B. Bromberg, commanding officer at Fort Bliss.
The second victim, a male soldier whose name was withheld by post administrators, was in stable condition at Beaumont Army Medical Center. Bromberg said the soldier had non-life-threatening wounds.
Twenty minutes after the gunfire, Polanco turned himself in to military police and was arrested. Bromberg could offer no possible motive for the shootings. Smith, just 5 feet 5 and 130 pounds, played cornerback on Chapin's football team and planned to attend Kentucky State University. He worked at Burger King part time
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to save money so that he could buy a car. He left behind a little sister, whom he often chastised but loved deeply, said students at his school.
El Paso school district Superintendent Lorenzo Garcia said Smith might have been a random victim who happened to cross the path of the shooter. The gunfire occurred across the street from Chapin High in the Lindquist Heights area at Leo and Dyer streets. Polanco lived in the neighborhood.
Fort Bliss military police and the Criminal Investigative Division on post are investigating the shootings with help from the FBI.
"Today was very shocking," Garcia said. "It is the kind of incident that makes our young people grow up faster than what we want. We are in mourning."
Bromberg said only one weapon was used in the shooting. He declined to identify what type of gun it was, but said several weapons were found in the house. Authorities did not know whether all the weapons belonged to Polanco, who grew up in Del Rio, Texas, and once was a police officer in a school district there.
"It's very tragic for the families who are involved," Brom berg said. "Our sincerest sympathies and condolences go out to them."
Chapin Principal Carla Gonzales announced Smith's death about 12:50 p.m. over the school's intercom.
"Students, we have lost one of our own today," she said.
Then she closed her eyes for a few seconds before explaining that counselors would be available to talk to students.
Sadness hung over the campus. Students -- most crying and a few so emotional they could barely walk -- poured into the school library to seek comfort from one another.
Coaches and teachers described Smith as quiet, respectful and focused on his goals. His friends, though, remembered a young man who always made them laugh, worked harder than anyone else and would give up his last dollar if somebody wanted to buy a candy bar.
Smith, who tried out for the basketball team but was not selected, didn't let that stop him, said his friends.
"He never gave up," Caleb Moore, 16, said. "He kept coming. He was all heart. Even if he wasn't the most skilled, he was always the one who hustled the most."
Basketball and football were two of Smith's loves. A backup corner, he wore No. 15 for the Chapin team last fall.
Smith, friends said, also played the piano and the drums. He wanted to be a computer engineer.
"He was the kind of person that wouldn't harm a fly," said senior Steven Porter, 17. "He had a warm heart and would go out of his way to say kind things to people. Knowing that he is in a better place is the only thing keeping me calm."
Smith's girlfriend, Iesha Reeves, said the two had plans. They were going to graduate from Chapin and attend the same university once she finished basic training for the Navy.
Before that, though, they were going to attend prom together on her birthday. She had already bought her dress.
"We used to sing together," she said. "He would make up songs and sing them to me. I loved everything about him, the way he dressed, his personality, the way he acted, even the way he smelled. I don't know what I am going to do."
Reeves said she spent the first part of Friday looking for Smith because they usually had lunch together. When she returned to class and heard the announcement over the intercom, she began to scream.
To calm her, a friend shared the advice she received when her grandmother died. Her mother told her that every time she felt the wind on her skin, it was her grandmother brushing up against her.
"I walked outside and the wind blew up against my face," Reeves said, "and I knew that Gerald was still with me." My heart goes out to this young mans family and friends.

I can not help but wonder why would anyone do this.
MY PRAYERS GOES OUT TO THIS YOUNG MANS FAMILY AND FRIENDS.

[malamute]

Horrendous. I can't imagine the pain the family of the victim is going through.

[mrsrobinson73]

man, that is sooo sad :0( So scary to cuz that just goes to show, you just NEVER know!

[malamute]

Yes. It's one thing when some gang type thug gets killed in a fight -- sad but it doesn't hit home like this one does. It makes you realize how vulnerable we all are, that a good kid with potential on his way to school gets taken out for no reason at all. Some freak could be plotting to kill anyone of us, any of our kids, friends, family for no reason whatsoever.

[BGoerner]

Good GRIEF! I didn't put two and two together. SGM Polanco just left here on emergency leave.

[Jones_mp05]

[quote=southernbliss;8508425]Chapin senior slain: Fort Bliss soldier accused in teen's death

By Zahira Torres / El Paso Times
Posted: 04/24/2009 10:40:42 PM MDT


Click photo to enlarge





Friends and classmates of Chapin High School student Ezra Gerald... (Mark Lambie / El Paso Times)[LIST][*][URL="http://www.elpasotimes.com/newupdated/ci_12223769#"]«[/URL][*][URL="http://www.elpasotimes.com/newupdated/ci_12223769#"]1[/URL][*][URL="http://www.elpasotimes.com/newupdated/ci_12223769#"]2[/URL][*][URL="http://www.elpasotimes.com/newupdated/ci_12223769#"]3[/URL][*][URL="http://www.elpasotimes.com/newupdated/ci_12223769#"]4[/URL][*][URL="http://www.elpasotimes.com/newupdated/ci_12223769#"]5[/URL][*][URL="http://www.elpasotimes.com/newupdated/ci_12223769#"]»[/URL][/LIST][URL="http://www.legacy.com/gb2/default.aspx?bookid=9534953954825"]Guestbook: Leave your thoughts[/URL]
[URL="http://www.elpasotimes.com/news/ci_12223770"]Related: Specialist held in fatal shooting is from Del Rio[/URL]

FORT BLISS -- A Chapin High School student who would have graduated in June was shot and killed Friday morning, allegedly by a soldier whose motive remained a mystery.
The bullet felled Ezra Gerald Smith, 18, who was riding his bike to school in a military housing area near Fort Bliss. Army Spc. Gerald Polanco allegedly shot Smith dead about 7:50 a.m., Fort Bliss officials said.
Ezra Gerald Smith


Polanco, 37, also was charged with shooting and wounding another soldier.
Polanco was in a home when he allegedly opened fire. Both victims were outside, said Maj. Gen. Howard B. Bromberg, commanding officer at Fort Bliss.
The second victim, a male soldier whose name was withheld by post administrators, was in stable condition at Beaumont Army Medical Center. Bromberg said the soldier had non-life-threatening wounds.
Twenty minutes after the gunfire, Polanco turned himself in to military police and was arrested. Bromberg could offer no possible motive for the shootings. Smith, just 5 feet 5 and 130 pounds, played cornerback on Chapin's football team and planned to attend Kentucky State University. He worked at Burger King part time
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to save money so that he could buy a car. He left behind a little sister, whom he often chastised but loved deeply, said students at his school.
El Paso school district Superintendent Lorenzo Garcia said Smith might have been a random victim who happened to cross the path of the shooter. The gunfire occurred across the street from Chapin High in the Lindquist Heights area at Leo and Dyer streets. Polanco lived in the neighborhood.
Fort Bliss military police and the Criminal Investigative Division on post are investigating the shootings with help from the FBI.
"Today was very shocking," Garcia said. "It is the kind of incident that makes our young people grow up faster than what we want. We are in mourning."
Bromberg said only one weapon was used in the shooting. He declined to identify what type of gun it was, but said several weapons were found in the house. Authorities did not know whether all the weapons belonged to Polanco, who grew up in Del Rio, Texas, and once was a police officer in a school district there.
"It's very tragic for the families who are involved," Brom berg said. "Our sincerest sympathies and condolences go out to them."
Chapin Principal Carla Gonzales announced Smith's death about 12:50 p.m. over the school's intercom.
"Students, we have lost one of our own today," she said.
Then she closed her eyes for a few seconds before explaining that counselors would be available to talk to students.
Sadness hung over the campus. Students -- most crying and a few so emotional they could barely walk -- poured into the school library to seek comfort from one another.
Coaches and teachers described Smith as quiet, respectful and focused on his goals. His friends, though, remembered a young man who always made them laugh, worked harder than anyone else and would give up his last dollar if somebody wanted to buy a candy bar.
Smith, who tried out for the basketball team but was not selected, didn't let that stop him, said his friends.
"He never gave up," Caleb Moore, 16, said. "He kept coming. He was all heart. Even if he wasn't the most skilled, he was always the one who hustled the most."
Basketball and football were two of Smith's loves. A backup corner, he wore No. 15 for the Chapin team last fall.
Smith, friends said, also played the piano and the drums. He wanted to be a computer engineer.
"He was the kind of person that wouldn't harm a fly," said senior Steven Porter, 17. "He had a warm heart and would go out of his way to say kind things to people. Knowing that he is in a better place is the only thing keeping me calm."
Smith's girlfriend, Iesha Reeves, said the two had plans. They were going to graduate from Chapin and attend the same university once she finished basic training for the Navy.
Before that, though, they were going to attend prom together on her birthday. She had already bought her dress.
"We used to sing together," she said. "He would make up songs and sing them to me. I loved everything about him, the way he dressed, his personality, the way he acted, even the way he smelled. I don't know what I am going to do."
Reeves said she spent the first part of Friday looking for Smith because they usually had lunch together. When she returned to class and heard the announcement over the intercom, she began to scream.
To calm her, a friend shared the advice she received when her grandmother died. Her mother told her that every time she felt the wind on her skin, it was her grandmother brushing up against her.
"I walked outside and the wind blew up against my face," Reeves said, "and I knew that Gerald was still with me." My heart goes out to this young mans family and friends.

I'm shocked that Uncle Jerry would do some thing like that, I served with him honorably in Iraq, I actually saved his life by chance one day during a incident in Khadra. I do know one thing he had a young attractive daughter about the same age of the victum although I wouldnt count out the fact that Jerry really hated the Army and really hated when people where putting the screws to him so he might have had a confrontation with a team leader or squad leader.