The father of Nevada teen Logan Clark, who was shot and critically wounded Dec. 7 by a school security officer, says his son was bullied and brought dull butter knives to school to defend himself.
The security officer is on paid leave while the incident is investigated. Video of the incident has been circulated in which Clark is allegedly shown running around the school’s quad with the knives and threatening other students. When Clark refused to drop the knife as commanded by the security officer, the officer shot him.
The teen’s father Justin Clark told NBC News that Logan had become the target of some classmates when they believed that he had “snitched” on them after they were suspended for a fight off campus.
“He went into a combat situation knowingly with a 14-year-old mind how to solve it, with very little options,” he said.
Clark added that his son was not a threat to anyone and that the knives were dull butter knives from his grandmother’s kitchen. The father believes the officer should have used non-lethal force or tried to talk his son down before shooting him.
Clark also said he blamed himself because Logan didn’t feel comfortable enough to talk to him about the bullying. He asked people to pay attention to their kids and try to pick up clues about when something like bullying might be occurring.
When it came to Logan’s situation, he told NBC, “Everybody dropped the ball. My son will never be the same again — not even close.”