Longwood, Fla. ? The parents of a 15-year-old boy accused of terrorizing classmates with a pistol warned authorities the weapon likely was fake before police shot him in a middle school bathroom, a family attorney said Saturday.

Christopher Penley, of Winter Springs, was accused of pulling a pellet gun in a classroom Friday and pointing it at other students. When he later raised the weapon at a deputy, a SWAT team member shot him, authorities said.

Officers who had responded to the 1,100-student school in suburban Orlando believed the gun was a Beretta 9 mm, and didn’t learn until after the shooting that it was a pellet gun.

The boy’s parents, Ralph and Donna Penley, were in contact with authorities during the incident and told them they believed Christopher did not have a real gun, said family attorney Mark Nation. Ralph Penley went to the school to attempt to talk his son out of the situation.

“When he got to the school, they would not let him in and he was later told Christopher had been shot,” Nation said.

Christopher was clinically brain dead Saturday, Nation said. “His organs are in the process of being harvested.”

Friends and investigators say Christopher was bullied and went to school that day expecting to die.

Patrick Lafferty, a 15-year-old neighbor who has known Christopher about six years, said he wasn’t surprised by what happened. He said Christopher was a loner who “told me he wanted to kill himself dozens of times.”

“He would put his headphones on and walk up and down the street and he would work out a lot,” preferring to keep to himself, Lafferty said.

Kelly Swofford, a family spokeswoman and neighbor of the boy’s parents, said the boy had run away from home several times. Her 11-year-old son, Jeffery Swofford, said Christopher had said he had something planned.

“He said ‘I hope I die today because I don’t really like my life,”‘ Jeffery Swofford said.