Green Junior High School in Oxnard, California, who was shot twice by a fellow student, 14-year-old Brandon McInerney, and kept on life support for two days afterwards.

Newsweek described the shooting as "the most prominent gay-bias crime since the 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard", bringing attention to issues of gun violence as well as gender expression and sexual identity of teenagers.

That trial ended on September 1, 2011, when Judge Charles Campbell declared a mistrial because the jury was unable to reach a unanimous verdict.

[7] His biological father had abandoned his wife, and his mother, who was unable to care for King, resorted to prostitution to support her children and her drug habit.

By the third grade, King began to be bullied by his fellow students due to his effeminacy and openness about being gay, having come out at ten years old.

Boys openly bullied him when he began attending school wearing women's accessories and clothing, high heels and makeup.

[3] In addition to dressing in feminine clothing, King had begun to ask to be called Latisha in the week and a half prior to the shooting.

Written by eighth-grade assistant principal Sue Parsons, it said, in part:We have a student on campus who has chosen to express his sexuality by wearing make-up.

[3][failed verification] In court documents, prosecutors described these behaviors as a response to increasing aggression from other boys, particularly Brandon McInerney, with whom King had had a number of "acrimonious" verbal disputes in the weeks prior to the shooting.

Between August 2000 and February 2001, William McInerney had contacted Child Protective Services at least five times to express concern about his son living with his mother.

At approximately 8:15 a.m. local time, McInerney drew from his backpack a .22-caliber revolver belonging to relatives and shot King twice in the back of the head.

[17] Condolences were expressed by, among many others, Judy Shepard,[18] Human Rights Campaign president Joe Solmonese,[19] Senator Hillary Clinton, and television host Ellen DeGeneres.

Greg believes that Larry was sexually harassing McInerney, and has expressed concern that King is being made a poster child for gay rights issues.

[23] According to the California Attorney General's Office, however, the school could not legally have stopped King from wearing girls' clothes because state law prevents gender discrimination.

[3][failed verification] When Epstein was later promoted to principal at another local public school, King's father described it as a "slap in the face of my family".

[25] On July 24, 2008, Judge Douglas Daily of Ventura County Superior Court ruled that McInerney would stand trial as an adult,[26] with the decision being appealed.

[29] On December 8, 2008, Ventura County Superior Court ruled that McInerney, after being evaluated by a psychiatrist and a psychologist, was competent to stand trial.

[31] On December 29, 2008, Judge Rebecca Riley denied the motion, on the grounds that there was no evidence of abuse of discretion in transferring McInerney from juvenile to adult court.

[32] On January 26, 2009, the preliminary hearing was postponed until March 17,[33] to give McInerney's lawyers time to appeal Judge Riley's rejection of the December motion for discovery.

[32] On March 18, 2009, the hearing was again postponed, when William McInerney, the father of Brandon, was found dead in his living room in the Silver Strand area near Oxnard after he sustained an accidental head injury in a fall.

[34] Judge Riley granted Brandon McInerney permission to leave the juvenile detention facility and attend his father's funeral.

[36] On September 1, 2009, Ventura County Superior Court Judge Kevin DeNoce ruled that the addition of a lying-in-wait allegation to the list of charges was acceptable.

[44] Multiple previously scheduled dates were bypassed for various reasons, and plans or requests to move the venue or use jurors from other locations in California were not realized.

Another witness said many students made fun of King and called him offensive names behind his back when he came to school wearing makeup and jewelry.

[51] Dawn Boldrin, an English teacher, had testified and said she counseled King and told him he should not wear attention-getting clothing if he did not want to receive negative attention.

He was sentenced to 21 years behind bars, initially in a juvenile facility and then in prison upon turning 18, with no credit given for time served prior to the trial or for good behavior.

Some, like Janet Jackson, Calpernia Adams, Sara Bareilles, and Taylor Swift, used their fame and recognition to create a public service announcement about the murder which ran on Logo and across MTV networks.

[64] The murder was a central inspiration for Canadian writer Raziel Reid's award-winning young adult novel When Everything Feels Like the Movies, published in 2014.

[67] The book also goes into the detail about the personal lives of Larry King, Brandon McInerney, and those close to the boys while also talking about how the trials went during that time.

Green Junior High School installed an alliance called Prism, a safe space for LGBTQ youth and allies, years after the death of Larry King.