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Police Shoot Boy, 13, Allegedly Carrying BB Gun

By Chuck Sudo in News on Jul 26, 2011 6:20PM

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Jimmell Cannon
The Chicago Police Department added to its 2011 shooting total last night with two separate incidents on the West side. The one that's grabbing national headlines involves 13-year-old Jimmell Cannon.

Cannon was shot eight times by police last night after police said he had a gun and fit the description of a suspect in an earlier shooting. (That's a script we seem to remember reading before.) Cannon's family and friends, meanwhile, said that the boy is a straight-A student who didn't have a weapon on him of any kind when he was shot. Andrea McClay, who said she witnessed the shooting, told WGN-TV that Cannon had his hands in the air and was cooperating with police when they opened fire.

One police officer later said that Cannon had a BB gun, which makes us question the excessive force even more. Adding insult to Cannon's multiple injuries, he's being treated for his gunshot wounds at Stroger Hospital, doped up on morphine with his ankle cuffed to the hospital bed. Cannon's family has retained an attorney to look into the shooting