MOUNT MORRIS TOWNSHIP, Mich. - The 6-year-old boy who
killed a first-grade classmate used a stolen gun he apparently discovered loaded and lying around in a bedroom at the ''flophouse'' where he was living, investigators said Wednesday.
Authorities focused on possible criminal charges against any
adults who gave the boy access to the .32-caliber pistol he used to
shoot 6-year-old Kayla Rolland on Tuesday morning, a day after the
two apparently had scuffled on the playground at Buell Elementary
School.
The boy is too young to understand what he was doing, and
probably won't be charged, the prosecutor said.
After the shooting, the boy put the gun in his desk and went to
the school office, Superintendent Ira Rutherford said. After police
questioned him, Police Chief Eric King said, he ''sat there drawing
pictures.''
''He is a victim in many ways,'' Genesee County Prosecutor
Arthur Busch said. ''It is very sad. We need to put our arms around
him and love him.''
Busch said the house where the boy and his 8-year-old brother
were staying with an uncle was frequented by strangers, and the
boy's father who is in jail told the sheriff that people at the
house traded crack cocaine for guns.
The ramshackle house is surrounded by mud-caked trash, and the
front yard is cluttered with an empty vodka bottle and a rusting
black Camaro. The home has tattered and stained curtains, and
fluttering plastic garbage bags taped over broken windows. No one
answered the door Wednesday.
The boy and his brother had been staying for about two weeks
with the uncle their mother's brother after the mother had been
evicted from her home, Busch said.
The uncle, Sirmarcus B. Winfrey, was arrested Tuesday night on
an outstanding warrant on charges of receiving stolen property and
was to be questioned, police said. A second man, who authorities
believe once had the gun used in the shooting, turned himself in
Wednesday for questioning.
''It's our understanding from the police investigation that this
gun was obtained from a bedroom under some blankets which had been
left laying, apparently loaded, in this bedroom,'' Busch said at a
news conference.
Investigators also found a stolen 12-gauge shotgun and drugs in
the house, the prosecutor said.
Outside the school Wednesday, mourners created memorials of
candles, flowers and cards for Kayla, who died a half-hour after
she was shot once in the chest. Classes were canceled for the day,
but counselors were on hand for anyone who needed them.
Sheila Alger and her 4-year-old son, Austin, placed a teddy bear
at the school's front door. ''He doesn't understand, and I don't
think other kids do,'' Alger said. ''I don't think the boy who did
it understands.''
Police said they had gotten conflicting stories from the young
witnesses about what exactly happened inside Room 6. Some said the
boy pointed the gun at others first; others said he didn't. Some
reported that he said something to Kayla first; others said he said
nothing.
''The witnesses are little kids,'' King said.
Busch said the school had no metal detectors but had private
security guards.
The boy's father served two years in prison on a burglary
conviction and is now serving time in the county jail for an
alleged parole violation. He told the sheriff that his son had been
suspended from school for fighting and for stabbing a girl with a
pencil.
The 29-year-old father heard about Tuesday's shooting from a
cellmate and ''a cold, sinking feeling came over him because he
knew it was his son,'' Sheriff Robert J. Pickell said. ''He said
(his son) liked to watch the violent movies, the television
shows.''
The sheriff said the father told him that when he asked his son
why he fought with other children, the boy ''told him that he hated
them.''
And Pickell said that although the father told him ''he'd never
seen the .32-caliber weapon the boy used,'' people in the house
would ''trade crack for weapons or any kind of merchandise.''
''There were people coming and going from this house,'' Busch
said. When police went there, ''there were several people just
hanging out. I call it a flophouse.''
The boy and his brother were placed with relatives, and police
have said the boy will be placed in state custody. Police would not
disclose the mother's whereabouts.
The boy is the youngest suspect in the deadly school shootings
that have rocked the nation over the past three years. In 1998, two
boys, 11 and 13, opened fire at a school in Jonesboro, Ark.,
killing five.
Chris De Witt, spokesman for Michigan Attorney General Jennifer
Granholm, said under previous court decisions, a 6-year-old cannot
be tried for murder in Michigan. He said the law allows murder
charges against a 7-year-old.
