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Killing of Kayla Rolland

Coordinates: 43°04′49″N 83°42′20″W / 43.08028°N 83.70556°W / 43.08028; -83.70556
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Kayla Rolland
Born(1993-05-12)May 12, 1993
Mount Morris Township, Michigan, United States
DiedFebruary 29, 2000 (2000-03-02) (aged 6)
Mount Morris Township, Michigan, United States
Cause of deathCardiac arrest from shooting
Resting placePine Grove Cemetery, Millington, Michigan, United States
Known forChild school shooting victim

Kayla Renee Rolland (May 12, 1993 – February 29, 2000) was an American six-year-old girl from Mount Morris Township, Michigan, who was fatally shot on February 29, 2000 by a six-year-old male classmate at Buell Elementary School in the Beecher Community School District. The boy had found the gun while living at his uncle's drug house where guns were frequently traded for drugs. The killing drew worldwide attention due to the particularly young ages of the victim and the perpetrator: Rolland was the youngest school shooting victim in the United States until the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012, and her assailant remains the youngest school shooting perpetrator to-date. The boy was not charged with murder because of his age. Buell Elementary School closed in 2002.[1]

Background

Kayla Rolland's assailant was a six-year-old male first grader at Buell Elementary School in the Beecher Community School District, located in Mount Morris Township near Flint, Michigan. His father, Dedric Owens, was in jail for violating parole, having previously been convicted for possession of cocaine "with intent to deliver" and burglary.[2] The boy had been living with his mother Tamarla, and his eight-year-old brother. His mother was evicted from her home, having been unable to pay rent with the $175 weekly wage she received from the two jobs she worked under Michigan's welfare to work scheme. Both boys then moved into their uncle's house, where they shared a single sofa as a bed. The home was a crack house operated by his uncle and a 19-year-old man where guns were frequently traded for drugs, and at some point the child had found a loaded Davis Industries P-32 .32-caliber handgun under some blankets.[3][4]

The boy was known to have behavioral problems, and was made to stay after school nearly every day for saying "the F word," flipping people off, pinching and hitting. Some weeks before the shooting he had stabbed a girl with a pencil. Chris Boaz, a seven-year-old classmate, claimed the boy once punched him because he would not give him a pickle. The boy had attacked Kayla Rolland before and, on the day prior to the killing, tried to kiss her and was rebuffed. Early on the morning of the shooting, the boy and his brother got into a fight with Boaz's 10-year-old uncle, who punched the boy who then according to Boaz's grandmother said "Do you want me to take my gap out and shoot you?"[4]

Shooting

On February 29, 2000, the boy had brought the firearm, along with a knife, with him to school. Further in the day, during a change of classes, he fatally shot six-year-old Kayla Rolland in the presence of a teacher and 22 students while they were moving up a floor on the stairs, saying to her: "I don't like you", before pulling the trigger. The bullet entered her right arm and travelled through a vital artery. At 10:29 a.m. EST, Rolland was pronounced dead at Hurley Medical Center while in cardiac arrest.[5] He then threw the handgun into a trash basket and fled to a nearby restroom. He was found there, in the corner, by a teacher and was taken into police custody soon after. He was held in custody until the Genesee County Family Independence Agency could determine his placement.[6] He and his two younger siblings have since been placed with an aunt.[7]

Aftermath

At the time, Kayla Rolland was believed to have been the youngest school shooting victim in United States history, which was not surpassed until the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in December 2012.[8] Her assailant became the youngest school shooter in the United States, and the legal claim that at that age he would lack the ability to form intent, he was not charged with the murder. In most U.S. states, six-year-olds are not liable for crimes they commit, and the Genesee County Prosecutor Arthur Busch called on the citizens to collectively hug the boy presumably out of pity and sympathy. In an 1893 ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court declared that "children under the age of seven years could not be guilty of felony, or punished for any capital offense, for within that age the child is conclusively presumed incapable of committing a crime." This is followed in many U.S. states.[9]

Jamelle James, the uncle who owned the .32-caliber pistol used in the shooting was sentenced for leaving the gun in a shoe box in his bedroom.[10] He eventually pleaded no contest to involuntary manslaughter and spent two years and five months in prison before he was released on probation. The other adults involved would be in and out of court systems in the years to follow.[1] A search of James' house produced a loaded pump-action shotgun and a rock of crack cocaine.

Buell Elementary closed in 2002 due to dwindling enrollment and stressed finances. The campus was heavily damaged by arson in 2005, and was demolished in 2009.[11] On the twentieth anniversary of the shooting on February 29, 2020, news media reported that the boy who shot Kayla Rolland was living in Bay City, Michigan.[12] According to court records, he had been convicted at age 18 of a felony in connection with charges of second-degree home invasion and larceny at a Bay City house on April 23, 2012.[12]

Rolland's killing was documented in the 2002 Michael Moore film Bowling for Columbine.[13]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Five years after school shooting, Michigan community still in pain Sign on San Diego Retrieved on November 26, 2007 Archived March 12, 2005, at the Wayback Machine
  2. ^ Murder in the First Grade 60 Minutes
  3. ^ Major U.S. school shootings in the last 10 years Fox News Archived June 21, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  4. ^ a b The Killing of Kayla Time Magazine Archived September 30, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  5. ^ Student killed in Michigan elementary school shooting "CNN". Archived from the original on January 3, 2008. Retrieved July 8, 2007.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  6. ^ Michigan first-grader fatally shot by classmate CNN Archived January 3, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
  7. ^ More Indictments In School Shooting CBS News
  8. ^ Broughton, Philip Delves (March 1, 2000). "Shocked pupils tell of shooting by six-year-old". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on April 25, 2005. Retrieved August 6, 2007.
  9. ^ Dwyer, Kevin and Fiorillo, Juré. True Stories of Law & Order: SVU. 2007: Berkley/Penguin, page 15. ISBN 0-425-21735-3)
  10. ^ Sentence in Mich. school shooting ABC News
  11. ^ Mullen, Roneisha D. (April 8, 2009). "Site of Beecher 2000 school shooting reduced to rubble". MLive. Retrieved December 15, 2016.
  12. ^ a b Fonger, Ron. "20 years after Kayla Rolland: The fatal first grade shooting that sparked a national gun debate". Michigan Local News. Retrieved March 12, 2020.
  13. ^ Baker, Mike (June 1, 2004). "Moore criticism needed". University of Washington. Retrieved September 23, 2019.

43°04′49″N 83°42′20″W / 43.08028°N 83.70556°W / 43.08028; -83.70556

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