THE HARSH LIFE OF A BOY GUNMAN

Six-year-old Lived In Michigan Crack House

Mount Morris Township, Mich. -- Everyone knows that it was a six-year-old
boy who aimed a stolen .32-calibre semi-automatic handgun at Kayla Rolland
and squeezed the trigger. What they don't know is, who is to blame? Who
should be punished?

Is a six-year-old really to blame for anything, especially if his father
and grandfather are in jail and his mother leaves him in the care of crack
dealers who leave loaded guns around the slum that serves as his home?

Even Arthur Busch, the prosecutor for Michigan's Genesee County, could not
speak harshly about the little boy who shot and killed his classmate, Kayla.

"This little guy needs all the support we can give him," Mr. Busch said.

The boy, whose name has not been officially released, is staying with an
aunt. His fate will depend on what the police find out about the crime and
the boy himself.

Mr. Busch told a press conference last night that the boy would not be
charged, adding, "It would be a miscarriage of justice to pursue murder
charges in this case."

In response to reporters who pressed him about why the boy would not be
charged, he said: "We're not a bunch of wimps here, but we've got a lot of
common sense. . . . This is not an easy decision. I want you to know that."

Detectives who talked to the boy after Tuesday's shooting at Buell
Elementary School concluded that "he does not seem to have understood what
he has done," he said. They reported that the boy appeared to have no
understanding of the gravity of what happened in the Grade 1 classroom when
he pulled the gun from his pant pocket, fired one of its three bullets at
Kayla, and then put the weapon in his desk. As he talked of the shooting,
police said, he drew pictures on a pad of paper.

Six-year-old Kayla died almost immediately after she was shot, the latest
in a sorry succession of deaths that have cast a long and bloody shadow
across the school yards of the United States and more recently Canada.

Although school violence has become a familiar, if not an everyday,
occurrence in American life, the age of the young shooter and the disaster
of his upbringing have created a new level of despair.

The picture painted by Mr. Busch, police and neighbours in Mount Morris
Township, which is about 100 kilometres from Detroit, suggest that the
youngster was headed for almost inevitable disaster.

When the boy's father, Dedric Owens, spoke to Genesee County Sheriff Robert
Pickell on Tuesday night, he said that when he heard about the shooting he
had "a sinking feeling" that the child with the gun was his son.

Mr. Owens, 29, heard about the shooting in jail. He had been out on parole
after two years in prison for a burglary and for possession of cocaine with
intent to sell. He was thrown back into jail, he explained to the sheriff,
for fleeing police.

It was the father who told Sheriff Pickell that the house in which his son
had been living was a crack house, where crack cocaine was sold for money,
weapons or other merchandise. Investigators believe the boy found the
loaded handgun under some blankets in a bedroom of the house.

The boy had been living in the house for the past two weeks with his
mother's brother, 29-year-old Sir Marcus Winfrey. Mr. Winfrey was arrested
12 hours after the shooting and was being questioned by police about drugs
and a stolen, loaded shotgun that were found in the house where he, the
six-year-old and the boy's eight-year-old brother, Chico, were staying.

Another man, Jamal James, who was also living at the house, turned himself
in to police shortly before noon yesterday. He had been sought for
questioning about the fatal gun, which was stolen from a Mount Morris
residence in December.

The two young brothers went to live with their uncle in his grubby and
ramshackle house on Juniah Street, four blocks from Buell school, after
their mother, Tamara Owens, was evicted from the house in which they had
been living.

Police also learned from the boy's father that the youngster has a history
of personal troubles that include the school-yard stabbing of a little girl
with a pencil and several instances of fighting for which he was expelled.

When Sheriff Pickell asked Mr. Owens whether his son had offered any
explanation for his past violence toward other children, the father
replied, "Yes, he told me he hated them."

Mr. Owens was concerned about the son's violence and his taste for violent
movies. He said he had thought about advising school authorities, but
didn't get around to it. He wasn't sure, but he thought his wife might have
talked to the school.

The sheriff said Mr. Owens obviously cared for his youngest son, "but he
didn't care enough about him to be at home with him. He was in prison."

Mr. Busch, the county prosecutor, is to meet with police again today to
decide whether criminal charges should be brought against either of the men
in custody and what is to be done about the boy.

"This little boy is a victim and he certainly deserves to have this
community wrap its arms around him and find a safe place for him where he
can't hurt other people," Mr. Busch said, noting that the child didn't even
have a bed.

"He is a victim of the drug culture and he is a victim of the gun culture
in this country."

Under U.S. case law dating back more than a century, a child of less than
seven years cannot be regarded as criminally responsible because a child of
that age cannot form the intent to kill that is necessary for a criminal
prosecution.

However, those who allowed the gun to fall into the boy's hands could be
prosecuted for manslaughter if they were judged to be criminally negligent
in allowing him to get hold of the gun.

At 1103 Juniah St. yesterday, the only sign of life was the predictable
swarm of television reporters from as far as Japan, who did their reports
from the front doorstep or from beside the rusting black Camaro on blocks
in the middle of the front yard.

The side lane of the shabby house looked like a wrecking yard, with a
battered snowmobile and a derelict car sitting in the mud beside garbage
and car parts.

While attention focused on the boy's family life, or lack of it, Kayla
Rolland was remembered yesterday as an outgoing, sensitive child who adored
watching Barney on TV and loved to go to church.

"Kayla was like my goddaughter," said family friend Debra Jones, tears
rolling down her cheeks. "She smiled all the time. She was just a sweet,
sweet little girl."

Kayla lived with her mother and stepfather, Veronica and Michael McQueen,
and two siblings: Johnny, 10, and Elizabeth, 11. Neighbours said the three
were always together, walking to school each morning, wearing their backpacks.

Vivian Walter remembered having picnics with Kayla and her family.

"She was such a little, tiny, tiny girl. She was real quiet and she was
very lovable," Ms. Walter said. "When my daughter found out she had been
shot, she just curled up in a little ball and started crying."