Bennie Hargrove was 13 when he was shot on the third day of 8th grade. His alleged killer was 13, too. The day before he died, Bennie Hargrove told his grandmother he needed advice.
It was Aug. 12, the second day of eighth grade, and Bennie confided that he had stopped a classmate and some other teens from beating up a younger boy at their Albuquerque middle school earlier that day.
The 13-year-old’s disclosure made Vanessa Sawyer nervous. Sometimes, she said she told her grandson, it’s better to mind your own business.
“That’s just not in me,” she recalled Bennie saying.
The next afternoon, Bennie confronted the bully, Juan Saucedo Jr., near the school track, another child would later tell police. Bennie asked Juan, also 13, to quit picking on his friends, insisting that if he wanted to fight someone, he should fight Bennie.
“I’m done with this b—-,” the child heard Juan say in Spanish just before he pulled a black handgun out of his backpack and, according to police, fire six rounds into Bennie’s body.
The shooting at Washington Middle […]
We need to register all guns and keep them all in a safe place like an armory for all of them and only allow them to be taken out for specific, valid reasons.