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Rights groups want teen to be tried as juvenile
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Ventura County Star
4/16/2008
"A coalition of advocates for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights is calling for Ventura County prosecutors to try 14-year-old Brandon McInerney in juvenile court, not as an adult.
"McInerney has been charged as an adult in connection with the Feb. 12 fatal shooting of a classmate, Larry King, at E.O. Green School in Oxnard.
"According to students, King, 15, might have been targeted because he was openly gay.
"The coalition of lesbian, gay and other organizations, including Lambda Legal, the National Center for Lesbian Rights and the Transgender Law Center, announced Monday they have asked District Attorney Greg Totten to try McInerney as a juvenile.
"'We are saddened and outraged by the murder of junior high school student Lawrence King,' the groups' statement read. 'At the same time, we call on prosecutors not to compound this tragedy with another wrong. We call on them to treat the suspect as a juvenile, not as an adult.'"