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'They brought in an army to take out a 16-year-old boy': Anguish of parents whose suicidal son was shot by SWAT sniper at his home
- Andrew Messina became extremely emotional at his home in Towne Lake, Georgia after receiving a bad grade from school
- He began to brandish a .357 Magnum that was kept inside his parents house
- After his mother called 911 for a police officer to talk her son down a large number of deputies, an armoured tank and a sniper arrived at their affluent home
By
James Nye
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A sensitive and peace-loving 16-year-old boy from an affluent Georgia suburb was fatally gunned down by a police sniper in his own house after he threatened to kill himself following a bad day at school.
Young Andrew Messina cracked after receiving a bad grade and upon returning home he grabbed his parents .357 Magnum and told his mother he wanted to end his life.
Panicked, she called the police to come and talk him down, but instead, an army of deputies, an armoured tank and a sniper arrived at their Towne Lake home who eventually shot the boy dead after he smashed a door window with the handgun.
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Lisa Messina (left) has spoken of her devastation at the death of her boy Andrew (right) who was shot dead by police after pulling a gun on himself at his Atlanta home
Andrew Messina was shot dead by a police sniper after the suicidal teen smashed his gun through a glass pane in his front door during a police stand off
Speaking out for the first time since the tragic May 1st accident at their Towne Lake home, Andrew's parents Nick and Lisa said they still struggled to believe the chain of events that led to their boy's death and the way that police have closed ranks since the fatal shooting.
'He just got sad and kind of down on himself and talked about running away. And that discussion turned to ending his life. And I wasn't home,' Nick Messina said to CBS Atlanta.
'It just happened so fast, and then he went upstairs. He has the gun in his hand, and he had bullets in the other hand,' Lisa Messina continued.Making a panicked 911 call, Lisa Messina was more concerned for her son's safety than her own.
'I need you to get away from him if you think he is going to shoot you,' said the 911 operator during tense call.
'I think he is going to shoot himself,' replied Lisa Messina.
Concerned as to what the exact police response would be to her armed son, Lisa Messina wanted to know how many cars are coming.
'Just one, right?' said the worried mother.
'I'm not sure,' replied the operator
However, when asked by the operator if her son was 'out of his mind,' Messina’s mother said 'yeah.'
The sensitive teenager had received a bad grade at school and the situation began to escalate when he grabbed a .357 magnum that was in his house
Lisa Messina and her husband Nick (right) have signaled their intention to sue Cherokee County Sheriff's department for mishandling their son's situation
Within minutes, the scene outside the Messina's picturesque home resembled a Hollywood movie, as a slew of officers arrived along with an armoured tank and a deadly police sniper.
'They brought an army to take out a 16-year-old boy. To kill a 16-year-old boy,' Nick Messina said.
While Andrew was inside the house alone, he hooked up a video camera to record himself as he drunk a bottle of Martini and telephoned his distraught father outside.
The harrowing footage of the boys last moments were made available to CBS Atlanta.
'You can't find anything worth living for with me?' said Nick Messina to his son.
'I don't know,' replied Andrew.
'Really?' said his father.
'I do know personally I really don't want to live. So you should just let this happen if you really love me,' said his son.
The Towne Lake home where Andrew Messina, an Etowah High School sophomore, was shot once in the abdomen after a tense police stand-off
Andrew Messina can be seen hunched over brandishing a gun at his home in Towne Lake, Cherokee County. Police negotiators are situated just to the right of the door in the centre of the image
Police at the scene cut off that phone call and placed negotiators to the side of the front door within earshot of Andrew.
'They are still standing there,' an agitated Andrew can be observed to say on the video as he staggers around his house wielding the handgun and drinking directly from the bottle.
'Go away or do something, the tension is killing me.'
As the home was surrounded by deputies in combat gear, Andrew can be seen to become ever more frightened in the video recording.
'We thought that they would (be) experts in being able to diffuse the situation. And that was not what happened. Instead of the fire being put out, they brought gasoline,' Nick Messina said.
On the negotiation call, Andrew Messina said he wasn't involved in a riot, rather he was angry.
'Is that a riot shield? Yeah, that's a riot shield,' he said. 'This isn't a riot, this is one person who is pissed off.'
Tragically for his parents, Andrew can be heard to ask to speak to his father several times.
'Hey, where's my dad? Isn't he supposed to be here?' he said.
Police sniper Jason Yarbrough (left) was cleared of any criminal wrongdoing after an internal investigation of Cherokee County Sheriff's department which is headed by Roger Garrison
The Messina family lawyer Chuck Pekor is preparing to bring a lawsuit against the Cherokee County Sheriff's department
Just 15 minutes before their son was fatally shot, Andrew Messina's parents watched sniper, Jason Yarbrough walk by them with his rifle over his shoulder.
'I couldn't believe the gun he had,' Lisa Messina said.
'I said, 'Whoa, where is he going with that gun?'
'A minute later we heard this horrendous cannon shot and he was dead,' Nick Messina said.
Cherokee County Sheriff Roger Garrison said that the 16-year-old boy had made an aggressive gesture by smashing through a glass window pane in the front door near to the negotiating teams.
'We would still be sitting there today if it weren't for that very, very aggressive act that he made of ramming the gun and a pistol straight through a glass door at our officers,' said Cherokee County Sheriff Roger Garrison, the day after the shooting.
'Had that officer not taken the action, there is a good chance one of those negotiators that was there who also has a family, also would not be going home today.'
However, the Messina's attorney Chuck Pekor believes that the police had no justification to shoot the suicidal teen.
'There is nobody in there with him. There is nobody at risk except himself. You just give it time, just wait,' Pekor said about the standoff which had lasted a little more than an hour.
'Not a single officer out there, not a one, ever saw the gun come through the hole where the break was.'
Furthermore, Pekor finds irregularities with the account that he was directly threatening the negotiating team.
This is because he was shot sideways through his abdomen, with the bullet entering his right side and exiting the left.
This meant that the right handed boy would have been facing the opposite direction to the police team when he was shot.
Furthermore, Yarbrough had only been on the scene for less than 20 minutes and has admitted he didn't even know if there was a hostage with the boy.
An internal investigation by the Cherokee County Sheriff's Office and the district attorney both found there was no criminal wrongdoing by Yarbrough.
However, the Messina's are in the process of filing a lawsuit againt the Cherokee County Sheriff's Office.
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