A gay junior high student who was shot in the head by a classmate in front of at least 20 other students in a classroom at E.O. Green Junior High School in Oxnard, California has been declared brain dead.

Lawrence King, 15, was declared brain dead by two neurosurgeons about 2 p.m. Wednesday at St. John's Regional Medical Center in Oxnard, said Craig Stevens, senior deputy Ventura County medical examiner.

Medical personnel initially believed that King was improving but the boy's condition worsened early Wednesday, and he was placed on a ventilator a few hours later with his family nearby. King's body remains on a ventilator for possible organ donation.

King was shot early Tuesday in a classroom at E.O. Green Junior High School. Police said the suspect, whose identity was not disclosed because of his age, shot King at least twice at the beginning of the school day and then fled the campus. The boy was apprehended by police a few blocks away and is being held in Juvenile Hall.

Police have yet to determine any motive for the shooting but several students said King and his attacker had a falling out stemming from King's sexual orientation.

The teenager sometimes wore feminine clothing and makeup, and proclaimed he was gay, according to LA Times. "He would come to school in high-heeled boots, makeup, jewelry and painted nails -- the whole thing," said Michael Sweeney, 13, an eighth-grader. "That was freaking the guys out."

Several students said that a day before the shooting, King and several boys had some kind of altercation during the lunch period.

If the suspect targeted King because of his sexual orientation, the case could rise to the level of a hate crime, authorities said.

"We've heard that and a lot of other things," Oxnard police spokesman David Keith told LA Times. "But I can't say what the motive is until we finish our interviews."

Ventura County Dist. Atty. Gregory Totten said he could not comment on the specifics of the case until he reviewed the police investigation but he confirms a hate-crime enhancement is something that prosecutors would consider as they move forward. "It's something we will look at," he said. "But the case is going to be reviewed as a murder involving the use of a firearm, and that carries a potential sentence of 50 years to life."

Prosecutors have not yet decided whether the case should remain in Juvenile Court, Totten said. Under state law, prosecutors can ask the court to try the suspect as an adult. "In all probability he will be charged in adult court," Totten said.

Update: Prosecutors on Thursday charged the 14-year-old shooter with attempted murder and said he committed a hate crime in the classroom shooting. The attempted murder rap will be upgraded when doctors take King off his ventilator, which is keeping his organs oxygenated for donation.

Last update: 02-14-2008 17:08