Larry King

Lawrence “Larry” King (1993 - February 16, 2008) was a biracal, openly gay, feminine-identified youth who was shot to death by his classmate, Brandon McInerney, on February 12, 2008, at E.O. Green Junior High School.

Lawrence King

King's biological mother was a drug user and his father was absent. At two years of age, he was taken in by Greg and Dawn King. The King's were told he wasn't being fed regularly. A speech impediment made King difficult to understand, and King had to repeat the first grade.

According to his father, Greg, King was prescribed ADHD medication, and was diagnosed with reactive attachment disorder.

Classmates began whispering about King in the third grade due to his effeminate manner. His best friend asked if he was gay, and King said yes. King came out to other classmates and was taunted as a result. One Halloween, a smoke bomb was throw into the King's home, nearly killing their pet Jack Russell terrier. Once student started a “Burn Book” (an allusion to the movie Mean Girls) about Larry, which said he was gay and falsely asserted that he dressed in goth and drag, and ended with a death threat. His parents moved him to another school.¹⁾

At 12, King was put on probation for vandalizing a tractor with a razor blade, and entered counseling with his father. King told his father he might be bisexual, but his therapist said King was just trying to get attention and may not have understood what it meant to be gay. King began telling his teachers his father was hitting him, and despite his father's denials King was removed from the home in November 2007.²⁾

King moved into Casa Pacifica, in Camarillo, CA.³⁾ A driver took him to school every day, and he sometimes went to Ventura, where he attended meetings of a gay youth group, the Ventura County Rainbow Alliance. In January 2007, King began wearing female attire. At some point he called his mother from Casa Pacifica and told her he wanted to have a sex-change operation. He told a teacher he wanted to be called Leticia, but reportedly dropped the idea without argument when the teacher refused.⁴⁾

His classmates at E.O. Green said he was known to wear make-up and jewelry, and was openly gay.⁵⁾ Students said that King endured some taunting, but appeared to be holding his own.⁶⁾

According to students, King and McInerney, 14, had a falling out related to King's sexual orientation. several students said that King and several other male student had some king of altercation during the lunch period. Some students said King had sometimes come to school wearing “high-heeled boots, makeup, jewelry and painted nails – the whole thing.”⁷⁾

By February, King's GPA had fallen from a 1.71 to 1.0.⁸⁾

McInerney turned 14 three weeks before King's murder.⁹⁾

McInerney's parents separated in August 2000, when he was six years old. Court documents indicate his parents had a violent and troubled marriage, and that McInerney witnessed much of the violence. In 2000, William McInenerney pleaded no contest to charges of domestic battery, and spent 10 days in jail. His mother, Kendra became addicted to methamphetamine in her 20s, and struggled with addiction until she was charged with being under the influence of drugs and ended up in a treatment program at 37.

Throughout the family turmoil, McInenery got involved in activities outside of the home, including martial arts and lifeguard training. He also joined the Marine Corps' equivalent of the Jr. ROTC, becoming a leader in the group until it disbanded in the summer of 2007.¹⁰⁾

McInerney's troubles began when his father began working in a town 60 miles away. McInerney began hanging out with new friends, and didn't have much interest in school, except for Nazi history. He knew all about the Nuremberg trials, and all the names of Hitler's Deputies. By the end of the first semester of eight grade, his GPA tumbled from a 3.3 to a 1.9. When he was kicked out of his honors English class, McInerney joined the same English class as King.¹¹⁾

On the morning of the February 12, 2008, King left his feminine attire at home and went to school dressed like any other boy. School employees said he seemed upset, and he told one employee that he'd thrown up his breakfast that morning. King was observed looking nervously over his shoulder on his way to English class.

Shortly after King arrived in class, the teacher moved the class to the computer lab. McInerney entered the class, taking the seat directly behind King. At 8:30 a.m., McInerney stood up, fired two shots into the back of King's head, tossed the gun to the ground, and quietly walked out of the classroom and left the school. ¹²⁾

Classmates said King may have expressed romantic feelings toward McInerney. ¹³⁾ Several students said that McInerney King had a verbal altercation with a group of students. ¹⁴⁾ One parent later told police that her daughter said that several students exchanged text messages the day before about what McInerey planned to do. Police chief John Crumbaugh acknowledged that several students said they hear about “comments, statements and threats” but didn't take them seriously, and there was no evidence that it was reported to school officials.¹⁵⁾

McInerey fled the scene of the shooting, and was apprehended by police a few blocks away from the school.¹⁶⁾

At 2:00 p.m. on February 13, 2008, King was declared brain dead by two surgeons at St. John's Regional Medical Center in Oxnard, CA. His body was kept on a ventilator for possible organ donation.¹⁷⁾

On February 16, 2008, King was removed from life support. His family had asked that his body be kept on a ventilator until his organs could be donated, and he was removed from life support after that had taken place.¹⁸⁾

King's funeral was held on February 22, 2008.

On February 19, 2008, hundreds of parents met in an Oxnard gymnasium, there to ask questions of school officials about King's shooting, including why officials did not intervene more aggressively in the escalating feud between King and McInerney. Questions were answered by a panel including school officials, counselors, and Oxnard Police Chief John Crombach. Further details about the incident were also revealed. One parent said her daughter told her that several students exchanged text messages the day before, about what McInerney planned to do.¹⁹⁾ Cromberg and school officials told parents that they were reviewing safety procedures and considering installing metal detectors.²⁰⁾

A series of candlelight vigils were held in the wake of King's death. The Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network (GLSEN) made King's murder one of the central themes in the organization's Day of Silence on April 25, 2008.²¹⁾

Following King's death, television personalities Ellen Degeneres²²⁾ and Larry King talked about Larry's murder and spoke out against anti-LGBT violence. The Logo television network produced a public service announcement against anti-LGBT violence, the subject of which was King's murder.²³⁾

A year after his murder, King was remembered in Washington D.C. when Rep. Lois Capps read a statement from the floor of the House of Representatives honoring his “full but tragically short” life, and condemning his murder. Capp's statement cited statistics about LGBT youth and harassment.²⁴⁾

In August 2008, King's family — his father Gregory, his mother Dawn, and his brother Rocky — filed a personal injury lawsuit against Ventura County and the Hueneme School District. The family alleged that the school district did not enforce the school dress code, and thus failed to protect King from harm, and that the county failed to protect him by permitting him to go to public school rather than Casa Pacifica. The family claimed that the county also had knowledge of death threats against King at a previous school, but did not protect him by enforcing the dress code.

School officials said they were aware of the friction between King and McInerney, and offered them both counseling. Superintendent Jerry Dannenberg said the school staff did nothing wrong, and ²⁵⁾ Dannenberg said that the school had done “a lot of counseling and a lot of work with [King], to help him with some of his concerns and issues,” but would not go into further detail.²⁶⁾

On February 14, 2009, the King family filed a wrongful death lawsuit accusing the school district, Casa Pacifica and the Ventura County Rainbow Alliance — along with nearly two dozen other defendants — of failing to protect him. The suit alleged that Casa Pacifica knew King's behaior was “sexually assertive” and threatening, but failed to take action. The suit also accused the Ventura County Rainbow alliance of giving King “crossdressing clothes, makeup, and women's boots.”²⁷⁾

Jay Smith, executive director of the Rainbow Alliance, denied the accusations. In a Feburary 12, 2009, editorial in the Ventura County Star, Casa Pacfica executive director Steve Elson, and board president Stacy A. Roscoe, wrote:

No one at Casa Pacifica ever encouraged Larry in his desire to “accessorize” or to be extreme in his appearance or mannerisms. Once, Larry went to school in jeans instead of the required navy blue “dockers.” After school, officials alerted us to this “violation” of the dress code and we made sure he always left for school in the required “uniform.” Indeed, the advice key staff gave him stressed the importance of personal safety and underscored the importance of making wise decisions and using sound judgment.

It is our responsibility - no, our privilege - to provide a “peaceful home” for all children who come into our care. We want every child to feel safe, feel respected and to know that, no matter what their backgrounds or behaviors, they will be treated with dignity. Larry felt safe here. More than that, he felt respected and valued. One of his former teachers told us that Larry had said to her that his time at Casa Pacifica was the happiest of his life.²⁸⁾

McInerney was charged with first-degree murder in King's death, with a special allegation that the killing was a hate crime. Bail was set at $770,000.²⁹⁾

McInerney was arraigned on May 8, 2008. His attorney, public defender William Quest, said that school officials were partly to blame for not having intervened in the conflict between King, McInerney over King's sexual orientation. School officials disagreed with Quest's allegations. School superintendent Jerry Dannenberg said that the school was aware of what was going on and were dealing with it appropriately.³⁰⁾

On July 8, 2009, Superior Court Judge Doug Daily found that there was no constitutional violation in District Attorney Gregory Totten decision to try McInerney as an adult. McInerney will be tried as an adult under California's Proposition 21, which allows juveniles under 14 to be tried as adults for certain crimes.³¹⁾

The decision to try McInerney as an adult drew protests from gay organizations such as the Lambda Legal Foundation and the Human Rights Campaign. In a letter to the district attorney's office, 27 organizations said the McInerney should be “held accountable for his actions,” but he should be tried in Juvenile Court.³²⁾

On August 11, 2008, Judge James Cloninger, ruled that records documenting King's behavior must be released Quest. Cloninger said he would privately review the record requested by Quest to aid in his clients defense; records which are expected to disclose information on King's behavior during the time he was living at Casa Pacifica and attending school at E.O. Green School.³³⁾

On August 11, 2008, Ventura County Superior Court Judge James Cloninger ruled that records regarding King's behavior must be released to Quest. The records are expected to reveal information about King's behavior during the time he was living at Casa Pacifica.

Cloninger ordered the release of records showing staff had received complaints about King's behavior, and ordered the school to turn over any list of students who had complained about being harassed by King if such a list exists. Steve Pell, the King family's lawyer, attempted to quash the release of the records. On August 21, 2008, Quest received the records.³⁴⁾

On February 10, 2009, the Ventura County district attorney's office filed documents in response to a defense appeal alleging that prosecutors had abused their discretion by charging McInerney as an adult. In the documents, prosecutors described the shooting as a pre-meditated execution-style murder, carried out by a classmate who was a proponent of “racist skinhead philosophy.”³⁵⁾

Senior Deputy District Attorney Maeve Fox said the details of the case justified trying McInerney as an adult. In December 2008, Fox filed a statement of facts to show that the case was properly filed. On February 11, 2009, The Ventura County Star Published details ³⁶⁾ from the brief including the following³⁷⁾:

• In the days before the shooting, McInerney had tried to elist other boys to administer a beating to King. When that failed due to lack of interest, he decided to kill King.
• King and McInerney had a acrimonious relationship in the months prior to the shooting.
• Witnesses said King was not the aggressor, but that he began to retort after months of being taunted and called “faggot” by McInerney and other male students.
• The day before the shooting, King and McInerney were bickering during seventh period, and a student heard McInerney say, “I'm going to shoot him.”
• After that class, another student heard King say “I love you” to McInerney, and then heard McInerney say he was “going to get a gun and shoot” King.
• McInerney told a third student to “say goodbye to your friend Larry because you’re never going to see him again,” the document stated. The female student didn’t take the threat seriously.
• McInerney was familiar with firearms and had used the gun used to shoot King for target practice while shooting with his family.
• Investigators found in his possession a training video titled “Shooting in Realistic Environments,” as well as skinhead and neo-Nazi literature and similar writings from the internet.

On January 19, 2009, defense attorney Scott Wippert said the district attorney's office abused its power by failing to consider factors such as McInerney's youth, family life, and school officials' failure to deal with growing tensions between him and King. Wippert requested documents outlining the prosecutors' reasoning for charging McInerney as an adult, but the district attorney refused to provide them.

On February 18, 2009, a state appellate court denied without comment an appeal filed by McInerney's lawyers seeking information on why the district attorney decided to prosecute him as an adult. The appeal ask the appellate justices to overturn a ruling by a Ventura County Superior Court judge saying that prosecutors didn't have to hand over the documents.³⁸⁾

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• http://www.lgbthatecrimes.org/video/larry-king-shot.flv?noautoPlay 320x240
• Larry King Declared Brain Dead
• Larry King Dies
• Ellen on Larry King's Murder
• Larry King on Larry King's Murder
• Larry King PSA
• Larry King Remembered

• GLSEN - Remembering Lawrence
• MySpace.Com - Remembering Lawrence King
• Remember Larry
• Ventura County Rainbow Alliance