MOUNT MORRIS TOWNSHIP, Mich. -- By all accounts, it was an appalling home for a child.
The 6-year-old boy accused of taking a handgun to school and killing a first-grade classmate lived in a ramshackle house, surrounded by strangers, crime and drugs. His father was in jail and his mother lived somewhere else.Police said the loaded gun was picked up by the boy in a bedroom.
The boy told police that Tuesday's shooting of 6-year-old Kayla Rolland was an accident and that he had only been trying to scare the girl, prosecutor Arthur Busch said.
The shooting, and a rampage Wednesday outside Pittsburgh, prompted a renewed call for gun safety legislation Thursday by President Clinton. Clinton said he hoped to meet with House and Senate leaders next week to push for two bills he says are stalled in Congress.
The boy and his two siblings were placed by court order in the custody of a maternal aunt. At the hearing, the boy's mother, Tamarla Owens, wept and his father -- brought to court from jail -- apologized for Tuesday's shooting.
"I feel bad for the other family. I wish it would've never have happened," said Dedric Owens, jailed on a parole violation related to 1995 drug and burglary charges.
In an interview broadcast Thursday on ABC's "Good Morning America," Owens said he and his son shouldn't be held responsible.
"The only thing I feel responsible for is not being there in his life like I'm supposed to be like a father, every day," Owens said. "Whoever was living in that house and had those guns in the house should be responsible for the shooting. I do know one thing, once I get out of here and get my head straight, I will try to get help for my son."
According to authorities, Owens said his son had been suspended before for fighting, and once for stabbing a girl with a pencil -- something the school has not confirmed.
Sheriff Robert Pickell said Owens had told authorities his son liked violent movies and television shows. The sheriff said Owens told him that when he asked his son why he fought with other children, the boy "told him that he hated them."
However, the boy is too young to understand what he was doing, Busch said, and probably won't be charged.
Authorities vowed to pursue criminal charges against adults who gave the boy access to the .32-caliber semiautomatic handgun he used to shoot Kayla. A day earlier, the two apparently scuffled on the playground at Buell Elementary School.
Classes were canceled for a second straight day Thursday.
Kayla's family is considering a lawsuit against school officials, said Geoffrey Fieger, Jack Kevorkian's former lawyer. Fieger said Kayla's father, Rick Rolland, contacted him about the possibility.
At a school board meeting Wednesday night, some parents asked the school district to install metal detectors, security cameras and teachers' aides in every classroom.
They also asked Superintendent Ira Rutherford what the district could have done to prevent the shooting.
"If there was a simple answer, we would have done it 20 years ago. We've agonized about this," Rutherford told the 150 people at the meeting. He didn't say whether the district would install metal detectors.
"No one had even conceived of metal detectors in elementary schools before now," Rutherford said. "Sometimes we have to do things to make people feel safe."
Investigators have recovered a stolen 12-gauge shotgun and drugs from the house, the prosecutor said.
Police arrested the boy's uncle, Sirmarcus B. Winfrey, late Tuesday on an outstanding felony warrant, Busch said.
A second man, who authorities believe once had the gun used in the shooting, surrendered Wednesday. The man, Jamelle James, was jailed on outstanding warrants and "miscellaneous charges," Busch said.
On NBC's "Today," Clinton said legislation calling for trigger locks and technology for so-called smart guns, which fire only when held by their owners, have languished in Congress for eight months. Clinton said he hoped to meet with leaders from both houses next week to break through the "logjam."
"I don't think most Americans have any idea what a stranglehold the NRA has on Congress," Clinton said.