1st-Grader Shoots Classmate to Death
Pair Had Quarreled the Previous Day
Kayla Rolland, 6, is pictured in this kindergarten class photo. (AP)
By Peter Slevin and William Claiborne
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, March 1, 2000; Page A01
MOUNT MORRIS TOWNSHIP, Mich., Feb. 29 �� A first-grader shot and mortally wounded another 6-year-old this morning in front of shocked classmates, one day after the two had quarreled in the schoolyard, authorities said. The small suspect hardly seemed to know what had happened.
The shooting at Theo J. Buell Elementary School is the latest in a string of bloody attacks by children against children. In an incident that shocked this working-class community north of Flint and drew an angry response from President Clinton, the shooter proved younger by years than the already youthful plotters of schoolhouse assaults in Littleton, Colo., Jonesboro, Ark., and Springfield, Ore.
"I think the little boy understood, from all the attention he got, that what he did was naughty, but I don't believe he understands the gravity or seriousness," said Arthur A. Busch, the chief Genesee County prosecutor. "Kids like this, at this age, can be fighting with each other one minute and hugging each other the next."
Authorities here did not release the name of the boy, but Busch said his father is in prison and that his mother--whom police initially could not locate--does not live with the youngster. An uncle lives with him, the prosecutor said.
"We are pretty much . . . zeroing in on the home and the conditions in which he lived," Busch said.
Clinton used the killing to renew a call for mandatory gun safety locks, asserting that the rate of accidental gun deaths among American children is nine times higher than in the world's 25 other largest countries combined. He asked during a fund-raising stop in Florida, "How did that child get that gun? Why could the child fire the gun?"
Police investigators asked the same questions yesterday of the boy, his mother and uncle. The gun had been reported stolen here in December, but Busch did not say by whom. The prosecutor said in an interview that he will not file charges against the child, but that he is prepared to target any adult who had failed to keep the pistol out of reach.
"There is a presumption in the law that a child 6 years old is not criminally responsible and cannot form the intent to kill that is necessary for criminal prosecutions," Busch said. "That is not to say that those responsible for him being in possession of the weapon will not be prosecuted. There's a lot of emphasis in America about the right to carry guns and not much emphasis on the responsibility once you have one."
He said local police want to know "why the adult has a stolen gun and whether or not they left it in such a fashion that this kid didn't have to go into the family safe to get it out."
Several years ago, Busch said, he successfully prosecuted an adult in Flint for manslaughter after a 6-year-old found a gun while playing and used it to kill a 4-year-old.
Five children in a class of 22 were in the classroom when today's shooting happened at Buell Elementary. The others had lined up outside the room. As the teacher stood in the doorway, the shooting happened quickly.
"This little boy pointed a .32-caliber pistol at a little boy. He then whirled and pointed it at the little 6-year-old girl," Busch said. The boy fired the gun, which carried a single bullet, hitting the girl in the neck. He then ran into a bathroom across the hall. He said nothing.
Relatives identified the victim as Kayla Rolland. She was rushed to Hurley Medical Center in Flint. She died at 10:29 a.m., hospital spokeswoman Mona Filipovich said.
Busch relayed word that the two children apparently scuffled on the playground on Monday: "It's not clear what they were fussing about, but one of them slapped the other." He said the school reported no problems "outside of the normal" with the boy who fired the gun.
When the gunshot echoed through the school shortly before 10 a.m., Buell officials secured classroom doors and made sure no one could enter, following a long-standing plan that was strengthened after 12 students and a teacher died last year at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo.
"Something happened in the school, Ma," Lori Jones's 7-year-old son, Frank, told her after she heard ambulance sirens outside the school and ran toward the police lines.
"They have always called this a high-crime area, but nothing like this has ever happened here. It's crazy," said Jones, a mother of two Buell pupils who intends to consider charter schools in the future. "I was scared. I was hysterical."
Third-grader Corey Sutton heard a loud noise and thought at first that a desk had fallen.
"The principal came over the PA system and told teachers to shut their doors and lock them. I was scared. My heart was pounding," Corey, 9, told the Associated Press. A teacher told students to put on their coats and to stand in line. "She told us what happened. A girl got shot, and the teacher started crying."
Amy Lamoreaux, a 15-year-old babysitter for the girl who died, said the brown-haired youngster played with dolls and seemed a happy child.
"She wasn't old enough to die. She didn't have a life yet," Lamoreaux told Reuters. "If it can happen in elementary, it can happen to the other schools here."
The victim's father, Ricky Rolland, 33, told WJRT-TV, "She wasn't a shoddy kid. All she did was not back down and then he came back and shot her."
"I wasn't a very good parent. I didn't see her like a parent should. But she shouldn't have been killed like that," Rolland said. He said the boy "pointed at one kid, then pointed at another" before shooting his daughter.
Where did the boy get the gun? "That's the $64,000 question right there. We know the gun was stolen," Busch said.
Tonight, police investigators searching the boy's home found a 12-gauge shotgun that had also been reported stolen and "some other evidence we're in the process of sorting through," Busch told the Associated Press. He declined to go into more detail.
Family service workers were trying to learn whether the boy and a younger sibling had been neglected, and whether they should be removed from their home. The boy was in the custody of Michigan's Family Independence Agency in Flint and was expected to be placed in a temporary foster home tonight.
Michigan recently fueled the national debate over juvenile crime and punishment when a jury convicted 13-year-old Nathaniel Abraham of second-degree murder in the fatal shooting of a stranger. Nathaniel was 11 when the shooting occurred, so small that his feet did not touch the floor as he took a seat during an initial hearing.
"When a 6-year-old kid has a gun and another kid is dead, there are just no words for it," said Raynetta Speed, who represents the district in the Genesee County Commission. "I don't know how it could happen. It's just a sad time."
Slevin reported from Washington, Claiborne from Michigan. Staff researcher Lynn Davis in Washington and special correspondent Brett Smith in Mount Morris, Mich., contributed to this report.
� 2000 The Washington Post Company
Teen charged with murder after Canada school shooting
April 29, 1999
Web posted at: 6:37 p.m. EDT (1037 GMT)
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In this story:
'He was shot point-blank'
Victim's father: 'Things have to change'
RELATED STORIES, SITES
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TABER, Alberta (CNN) -- A 14-year-old former student was charged Thursday with first-degree murder and attempted murder, a day after he allegedly marched into a high school in southern Alberta and shot two students, killing one and seriously wounding the other.
The boy, who was not identified because he is a juvenile, fired four shots from a .22-caliber rifle at W.R. Myers high school on Wednesday, police said, killing 17-year-old Jason Lang. Lang's friend, Shane Christmas, also 17, was listed in fair to serious condition Thursday at a hospital after surgery.
The shooting came just eight days after an attack on a Colorado high school left 14 students and one teacher dead, and it sent shock waves through the small farming community of Taber, about 110 miles (175 km) southeast of Calgary, Alberta.
Police refused to speculate whether Wednesday's shooting -- reported to be the first fatal Canadian high school shooting in 20 years -- was influenced by the Colorado attack. They said they were conducting a thorough investigation and could not release full details until their probe was complete.
Many of the 400 students at the school scattered and others hid behind desks when the gunfire erupted moments after lunch hour on Wednesday.
'He was shot point-blank'
Greg Tomcala, 14, said he watched in horror as a boy aimed a rifle at a student sitting against a locker doing schoolwork.
"I looked down the hall and I saw him shoot one kid," Tomcala said. "He was shot point-blank in the chest. He fell to the ground and then crawled away."
The bespectacled boy with the rifle then shot another student, who hobbled down the hallway.
The attack at W.R. Myers was Canada's first fatal school shooting in 20 years
The suspect was arrested by Const. Dennis Reimer, the school resource officer, who is also a member of the Taber Police Service.
Myers principal Don Gellatly said the school has been "inundated" with condolences and offers of help.
Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien said he was "shocked and deeply saddened" by the tragedy.
"The loss of a young life is always difficult to accept. But the senselessness of this act of violence makes it even more painful and all the more difficult to accept and comprehend," Chretien said in a statement.
Victim's father: 'Things have to change'
Lang's father, the Rev. Dale Lang, called for reconciliation.
"May God have mercy on this broken society and all the hurting people in it," he said at a news conference Thursday. "We pray that people will see by this incident that lots of things have to change in our society. Lots of things need to be healed."
Students said the suspect was unpopular and said he had left Myers and started home schooling because he didn't like the teachers or the school's curriculum.
Student Carl Jarvis, who said he has known the suspect for four years, described him as an avid television watcher and computer buff.
"Nobody really had anything against him, he was just sort of there. He just did his own thing a lot of the time," Jarvis said, adding that he didn't seem like a person "who would be influenced by TV or video games."
The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
Web posted Friday, February 11, 2000
5:26 a.m. CT
3 injured in Canada school shooting
The Associated Press
TORONTO (AP) - Gunfire in a high school parking lot injured three teen-agers Thursday, and police said they were looking for two male suspects with handguns.
The shooting at Emery Collegiate Institute in suburban Toronto occurred as students were going home for the day. Authorities locked the doors and kept many students inside the building.
One of the wounded was in serious condition, said police spokesman Nick Doria. He was unable to confirm if the attackers or the injured were students.
Police said they searched the school and surrounding neighborhood but released few other details of the shooting.
Video footage on CTV television showed one young male victim being wheeled into a local hospital.
It was unclear how many of the more than 1,000 students who attend the school were inside when the shooting occurred.
Lance McLean, 19, a senior, said he was playing chess in the school when another student told him of the violence.
"It's kind of crazy to have something like that happen at your school," he said.
Police Sgt. Bruce Warren said he was unaware of any previous violence at the school.
"As the parent of two school-aged sons, I am deeply troubled by any act of violence," Ontario Premier Mike Harris said in a statement issued after the shooting. "I will do everything in my power to ensure that our schools" are safe.
The shootings evoked memories of school violence in Canada and the United States in the past year.
In the worst incident, two students at Columbine high school in Littleton, Colo., killed 12 students and a teacher and wounded 23 before killing themselves in April.
School shooter is student, police say
March 22, 2001
Web posted at: 7:52 p.m. EST (0052 GMT)
EL CAJON, California -- At least seven people were hurt Thursday at a suburban San Diego high school six miles from where another school shooting occurred earlier this month.
One adult and three students were among the injured, said Capt. Bill McClure of the El Cajon Police Department.
Police said they arrested Jason Hoffman, 18, a student at the school. Hoffman was wounded in a running gun battle with the school resource officer, police said.
One victim is a teen-age boy who suffered shotgun pellets to the upper chest. His injuries are considered serious.
Both were taken to Sharp Memorial Hospital, authorities said.
The alleged gunman is said to be an 18-year-old male who suffered gunshot wounds to the mouth and the buttocks during an exchange of gunfire with police.
The suspected gunman is undergoing surgery, but his wounds were not thought to be life-threatening, a hospital spokeswoman said.
Two adults had minor injuries, McClure said.
It was not clear whether the suspect is a student at Granite Hills High School, the site of the shootings.
"He just got out of the car, he got down like in a sniper position and just started opening fire," Chris Weston, a junior at Granite Hills High School, told a reporter. "It seemed to be a shotgun."
At least eight shots were fired, he said. "One of them came at least two inches away from my head. If I wouldn't have ducked down, I would have been shot. It's just kind of a blur from there."
Another student heard the gunfire and took off running.
"It sounded like an explosion, like in a chemistry class or something," student Ryan Carrillo told KGTV of San Diego.
Carrillo, a sophomore, heard the gunshots as he walked to a bathroom near the office of the school, which has 2,900 students. He fled to a nearby park where weeping students gathered to hug and talk. Parents ran about, frantically searching for their children.
Carrillo said he heard the shots at 12:54 p.m.
At about the same time, the El Cajon Police Department received an "officer needs help" call, said Dave Cook, a police dispatcher. He said two deputies were at the school for an unrelated reason.
Witnesses told KFMB-TV that a suspect, armed with a shotgun and handgun, was wrestled to the ground by police. The station said officers were searching for possibly a second suspect.
Surrounding streets were closed and students streamed from the school and walked to a nearby grade school, where they were to be picked up by their parents.
"There's parents all over the place, everybody's on the cell phones," said one man at the scene. "One mother was standing here talking with her daughter, who's actually in one of the classrooms, talking to her on the cell phone."
Police told CNN that authorities were urging parents not to travel to the school in an attempt to retrieve their children.
A staging area near the school was being set up at a nearby elementary school where parents and children could reunite, Cook said.
The shootings occurred just over a week after a forum on school safety was held, inspired by the March 5 shootings at Santana High School in nearby Santee.
Granite Hills High School is a few miles south of Santee, where two people died and 13 were wounded.
In the Santee shooting, Charles Andrew "Andy" Williams is charged with 28 felonies, including two counts of murder. Investigators say in court documents that Williams carefully planned the March 5 shooting but had no specific target.
Friday March 30 12:33 PM ET
Student Killed in Parking Lot of Indiana School
GARY, Ind. (Reuters) - A 16-year-old high school student was shot to death by a former student in the school's parking lot on Friday, authorities said.
``It appears that he was targeted because ... the suspect shot the student and walked away,'' Gary Schools Superintendent Mary Guinn told WBBM-Radio. ``If there had been a desire to shoot someone else he would have.''
The suspected gunman, who Guinn said was withdrawn from the school at least a year ago for nonattendance, was apprehended and being questioned by police.
The shooting took place at Lew Wallace High School in Gary, which has more than 1,000 students. The students, some of whom witnessed the shooting, were taken back into the school, Guinn said.
School shootings have increased in the United States in recent years and since a deadly attack at a school in Santee, California, on March 5, there have been a number of threats to schools.
In Santee, a 15-year-old student allegedly killed two classmates. Last Thursday an 18-year-old opened fire at his school in El Cajon, California, injuring at least 10 people.
