Teen fatally shot at front door was holding a Wii remote, not a gun, family lawyer says
A Georgia teen fatally shot by a police officer when he opened the front door of the family’s mobile home in Euharlee on Friday was holding a Wii remote, not a gun, the family’s lawyer says.
Authorities have stated that a police officer trying to serve a probation violation warrant on Christopher Roupe’s father shot the 17-year-old in the chest because he pointed at handgun at her and another police officer, according to the Rome News-Tribune and WSBTV.
A Wii controller. Stefano Tinti / Shutterstock.com
But attorney Cole Law said the youth was carrying the remote device because he was about to watch a movie.
“The eyewitnesses on the scene clearly state that he had a Wii controller in his hand,” Law told the station. “He heard a knock at the door. He asked who it was, there was no response, so he opened the door, and upon opening the door he was immediately shot in the chest.”
Family and friends described the 17-year-old Roupe as a good person who looked out for others and was a member of the U.S. Army Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps at Woodland High School. He wanted to be a Marine after he graduated.
An investigation of the Bartow County shooting by the Georgia Bureau of investigation is continuing. Autopsy results have not yet been released. The shooting took place at about 7:30 p.m. Friday, and Roupe was pronounced dead at a local hospital a few minutes after 8 p.m.
The New York Daily News also has a story.
