Source: Ventura County Times
The family of Lawrence King, the eighth-grade boy who was fatally shot Tuesday by a junior high school classmate at E.O. Green School in Oxnard, remembered him this morning as a unique, caring young man.
The boy, who was known as Larry, loved to sing songs by folk rock trio Crosby, Stills and Nash, and was studying the Star Spangled Banner in hopes of singing it at his brother's baseball games, his father said. "He had a very gifted singing voice."
He was so good in fact, that one of Greg King's friends -- who was unaware of the family's tragedy -- called on Wednesday to say King should try to get his son to try out for American Idol.
Update: More details about Larry King
Greg King said his son was headstrong, confident and sweet.
Larry's mother, Dawn King, said Larry would often remind her to take her medicines to control her diabetes.
Larry also had an affinity for animals.
He loved butterflies and built a special connection with a stray dog he named Jasmine, his father said. "She'd fetch for Larry, but anyone else that tried to come near her she'd run."
His parents today clarified details about his death.
King, 15, was pronounced brain dead Wednesday afternoon. This morning he was being kept on a ventilator at St. John's Regional Medical Center in Oxnard, where doctors plan to remove some of his organs for donation today, said Craig Stevens, senior deputy Ventura County medical examiner.
Contrary to reports King had been communicating with hospital staff and that his condition improved in the day after he was shot in the head, King never emerged from a medically induced coma he was put into shortly after he arrived at St. John's, said his father, Greg King, of Oxnard.
When Lawrence King arrived at the hospital he was making some sounds and gestures, but neither were intelligible, his father said.
Larry had only been in the emergency room for about 30 minutes when doctors put him into a medically induced coma and took him to intensive care, his father said.
When Larry survived the first six critical hours after the Tuesday morning shooting, his neurosurgeon was guardedly optimistic, his father said. Larry made it through the night, but shortly after 8:15 a.m. Wednesday, he suffered a massive stroke, which caused his brain to swell and die.
Larry was pronounced brain dead at 2 p.m. Wednesday after examinations by two neurosurgeons, Stevens said.
Members of King's family decided together to donate his organs.
"I think that that's what he would have wanted," his father said.
Full article: School shooting victim's family speaks about his death, life : Crime and Courts : Ventura County Star