Student wears bullet proof vest to school....

Shawn ­Keiffer Newberry is shy, has a love for guns and is the 'most gentle person in the world,' in the eyes of his father, ­Jessie Newberry.
In the eyes of law enforcement, Newberry, 18, is potentially dangerous.

Weapons belonging to Newberry include two assault rifles and a Taser.

Related ArticlesStudent Who Wore Armor to School Arrested




Evidence seized by ..... Police in the arrest of Shawn Newberry includes ammunition and magazines for AK-47 assault rifles.

'Newberry displayed a great knowledge of assault weapons, police body armor, and knowledge of defeating body armor for the purpose of killing human beings,' an officer said in a police report.

The officer wrote that he '...believes Newberry is training and arming himself for some future illegal event.'

The elder Newberry said Wednesday that his son has never hurt anyone.

'Police are going ballistic and they are blowing all of this out of proportion,' he said.

Newberry was arrested Oct. 6 after he went to school wearing a bulletproof vest over a T-shirt Oct. 3. An officer questioned him about the vest at the charter school, Life Skills Center.

Life Skills administrator Curtis Thomas said Newberry walked into a class of about two dozen students wearing the vest. A teacher told Thomas, who in turn told a school resource officer about the student's unusual attire.


RED FLAGS

Jessie Newberry said his son had only attended Life Skills for four days, wore the vest because he was scared at the school and 'thought it looked cool to wear body armor.'

When Shawn Newberry consented to a search of his car, police charged him after they found a can of Clear Out, a nonlethal tear gas-like spray. Newberry was suspended from school.

Jessie Newberry explained that the Clear Out bottle was empty and his son kept it for protection during his delivery job at Pizza Hut on routes in bad neighborhoods.
After the search, more red flags were raised when Newberry talked about bulletproof vests with officers questioning him, police records state.

'Newberry explained ."that the only way to defeat the body armor is with a head shot or shooting someone's legs hitting the arterial vein so that they would ‘bleed out...'
Officers said in documents they thought it was unusual that Newberry would talk about killing people 'in such a calculated way' with three officers present.

The only time Newberry became nervous was when he was asked about the meaning of '10-19'

written on a piece of paper found in Newberry's car.

After officers researched Newberry's assigned computer at school, they found he had searched for Bible verses relating to 10-19, and specific dates relating to 10-19-87, including a stock market crash and an attack on Iran's oil platforms by the United States, according to police reports.

Jessie Newberry discounted the significance of the date. He said that his son was planning to get immunization shots for school on Oct. 19.

Before Newberry's arrest, his ex-stepfather, Mark McNeill, turned over to police two AK-47 assault rifles that belonged to Newberry. Earlier this year, McNeill turned over a bulletproof vest, tear gas, a tactical helmet, and two AK-47s belonging to Newberry.

Detectives looked further into Newberry's past and Wednesday searched his home. Police found numerous rounds of ammunition of various calibers, a small amount of marijuana, and a video camera with images of Newberry, three other young men and a woman who appear to be target shooting with AK-47s.

During one shooting session, the target was a newspaper box.

The video also shows the detonation of an explosive device, which was determined to have occurred just off Winter Lake Road.

After viewing the video, the State Attorney's Office charged Newberry with armed trespassing, grand theft for stealing the box and criminal mischief for damaging the box.

He is in the Polk County Jail in lieu of $605,000 bail.


First gun

Newberry bought his first AK-47 for about $600 about a week after his 18th birthday at a Vet's Surplus Store.

'He wanted to start collecting guns, particularly Kalashnikov guns,' said Michael Dunn, vice president at Vet's. The weapon, originally developed for the army of the former ­Soviet Union, is legal as long as it is semiautomatic.

Over time, Newberry bought a helmet, bulletproof vest, Taser, pepper spray and tear gas.

'He was a quiet guy,' Dunn said. 'He talked some about shooting...."

An officer in the store when Newberry purchased the gun asked him why he was buying it. Newberry could not provide a good reason, Dunn said.

'Right about that time interest peaked in him,' Dunn said.

Dunn stopped selling weapons to Newberry after police opened an investigation. 'I didn't feel comfortable selling them to him,' Dunn said.

Dunn said he told Newberry that he faced jail time if he continued to cause trouble with police.

'At first I thought he was just a nondescript little fellow,' Dunn said. 'After all this, I have some questions about what he's about.'

Newberry's father said police are wrong about his son.

The younger Newberry was home schooled for years and, according to police, only has a 6th-grade education. The home schooling combined with a lack of interaction with students made him extremely shy, his father said.

Recently, Shawn Newberry helped care for his mother, who died of cancer in February. 'He was there the whole time,' his father said.


I am a resource officer, but had no involvement in this news story.

Questions and observations:

The student is 18 years old.

In the reader's opinion;

Did L.E. go too far w/the charges? was it reasonable to go as in depth as the police investigation did?

FYI: In Florida it's perfectly legal for an 18 year old to own a rifle (or 2).

The can of "clear-out" was empty.

Would it have been more appropriate to help the young man find counseling sans criminal charges?

Was the memory of Columbine a factor?
Kel

Quote:

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After viewing the video, the State Attorney's Office charged Newberry with armed trespassing, grand theft for stealing the box and criminal mischief for damaging the box.

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The guy was apparently in clear violation of the law considering these actions. Armed trespassing, particularly is a pretty clearly illegal behaviour.

I'm not American, nor am I a lawyer, but to me it seems as if something's pretty obviously not right with the guy, considering the charges. As you say, the guy's now legally an adult, and as such will not be treated as a child in the eyes of the law.

Is it right or wrong to put the guy in jail? That's not for me to decide, I'm not an American, as I said.