Chattanooga Mother Speaks After 15 Yr. Old Killed in Police Shooting

A Chattanooga mother speaks out after her son is shot and killed by housing authority police.

The shooting happened around 8:30 Tuesday night in East Lake Courts.

Police say CHA Lt. Erik Reeves was responding to shots fired in the 26-hundred block of 4th Street when he came upon an armed gunman.

The officer says he warned the suspect repeatedly to put the gun down.

Instead the suspect raised the gun...

And the officer fired, striking the suspect in the upper body.

But 15 year old Alonzo O'Kelley's mother tells a different story, "I'm devastated. I'm devastated, because I know my son wasn't no angel. I'm not gonna say he was an angel, but to my knowledge he had threw the gun, he threw it, and you still proceed to shoot him."

CHA Police Chief Felix Vess says, "Lt. Reeves had to make a split second decision and he shot the suspect and during that time he was protecting life of the residents in that neighborhood and in that area."

O'Kelley, Jr. died a short time later.