From Excite.com News ...........
Texas boy shot for using sign language
Updated 6:20 PM ET June 13, 2000
FORT WORTH, Texas (Reuters) - A boy using sign language while walking down a street with his deaf cousin was shot and wounded in Fort Worth by suspected gang members who may have thought his hand motions were rival gang signals, police said Tuesday.
Henry Handy III, 16, was in fair condition at John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth after being shot once in the chest Saturday night. The case was made public Tuesday.
Police said Handy was walking down the street practicing sign language with his 15-year-old cousin when a car passed and a backseat passenger fired at the boy.
The gunman, who got out of the car and threatened to kill the deaf youth, was dressed in the colors of a local gang.
The hearing-impaired cousin told police he believed the gunman had mistaken their conversation for gang signals.
"We've never heard of anything like this. Right now our gang unit is investigating, but we have no named suspects," police spokesman Lt David Burgess said.
There is no evidence that Handy or his cousin were gang members, he said.
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This is probably one of the "children" HCI and the Klinton Administration talk about. The poor child (gunman) probably had his self esteem challenged by the signing youth.
Texas boy shot for using sign language
Updated 6:20 PM ET June 13, 2000
FORT WORTH, Texas (Reuters) - A boy using sign language while walking down a street with his deaf cousin was shot and wounded in Fort Worth by suspected gang members who may have thought his hand motions were rival gang signals, police said Tuesday.
Henry Handy III, 16, was in fair condition at John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth after being shot once in the chest Saturday night. The case was made public Tuesday.
Police said Handy was walking down the street practicing sign language with his 15-year-old cousin when a car passed and a backseat passenger fired at the boy.
The gunman, who got out of the car and threatened to kill the deaf youth, was dressed in the colors of a local gang.
The hearing-impaired cousin told police he believed the gunman had mistaken their conversation for gang signals.
"We've never heard of anything like this. Right now our gang unit is investigating, but we have no named suspects," police spokesman Lt David Burgess said.
There is no evidence that Handy or his cousin were gang members, he said.
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This is probably one of the "children" HCI and the Klinton Administration talk about. The poor child (gunman) probably had his self esteem challenged by the signing youth.