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                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 6, 1993                   TAG: 9301060175
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B2   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: Lon Wagner Staff
DATELINE: WAIDSBORO                                LENGTH: Short

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FAMILIES SHOCKED BY SHOOTING

Two Franklin County families grappled Tuesday with the shooting death of 17-year-old B.J. Clingenpeel.

Clingenpeel was shot in his upper chest while he and 18-year-old Michael L. Cooper were practicing to see how quickly they could draw pistols out of holsters, according to Capt. Bill Overton of the Franklin County Sheriff's Department.

Clingenpeel and Cooper, whose mother described the pair as "best friends," had been playing after school in the basement of the Coopers' house.

Betty Cooper said Tuesday that her son was too distraught to discuss his friend's death.

"He's just going through living hell right now," she said.

Clingenpeel was a student at Franklin County's alternative education center. The center's director, Chuck Huttow Jr., said Clingenpeel had "been making some real strides" lately. He would have graduated from high school this spring.

Overton said the two teen-agers began playing with a BB gun that was in the Coopers' basement.

Cooper told Clingenpeel that if he could fix the gun, he could keep it. Overton said Cooper then picked up a .22-caliber pistol in its holster.

"It's our indication, through the investigation, that the two boys were - he used the term - quick drawing," Overton said. Cooper "assumed the gun was empty."

Clingenpeel was shot just below the larynx, Overton said.

No charges have been filed. Overton said investigators are waiting for an autopsy report.

Keywords:
FATALITY

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