A LIFE OF GUNS, DRUGS AND NOW, KILLING, ALL AT 6

MOUNT MORRIS TOWNSHIP, Mich., March 1 - His father was in and out of
prison. His mother, evicted from her own home, sent him and his brother to
live with an uncle in a dilapidated house here, just north of Flint. There,
he did not even have his own bed and fell asleep in a place that neighbors
say was filled with noise, drugs and guns.

And on Tuesday, the police say, the 6-year-old got his hands on one of
those guns, stuffed it in his pants pocket and went off to first grade,
where he killed a classmate.

Today, cars paused outside the white clapboard residence, as passers-by
tried to get a look at the home of a troubled child, a boy who the police
say did not fully comprehend what he did when he used a .32-caliber handgun
on the 6-year-old girl, Kayla Renee Rolland.

She was shot once in the chest just before 10 a.m. Tuesday in front of a
group of about 22 first graders as they made their way into the hall of the
Theo J. Buell Elementary School.

The boy put the gun in a desk after the shooting and simply walked away.

Kayla was rushed to the Hurley Medical Center. She was pronounced dead at
10:29 a.m., less than an hour after the shooting.

Questioned by detectives, the boy did not cry, the police said, and
afterward sat and drew pictures.

"This young boy appears not to have many advantages in life," said Arthur
A. Busch, the Genesee County prosecutor, who said the boy probably would
not be charged and was released today to an aunt.

Although the authorities appeared to take a sympathetic attitude toward a
child who took another child's life, many residents said the real sympathy
belonged with Kayla's family and questioned whether it was safe to send
their children back to school.

The authorities say the boy's own father, Dedric Owens, serving time in
jail for a parole violation involving a burglary, said his son was living
in a "crack house." The neighbors say they suspected it all along.

In a raid Tuesday night, the authorities found a stolen handgun and
narcotics in the home and jailed the boy's uncle, Sirmarcus Winfrey, on an
outstanding warrant for theft. Another man, 19, who the authorities said
lived in the home and brought the stolen gun used in the killing into the
home, turned himself in to the police this afternoon.

The authorities said they were considering charging Mr. Winfrey and the
other man, whose identity was withheld by the authorities, with involuntary
manslaughter. They are also considering pressing charges of child neglect
against the family or guardians of the child, whose name was also withheld.

"It's my position that we have, at this point, enough evidence to establish
child neglect," the prosecutor said. "My attorneys will go to court even
today to argue that the court should take jurisdiction of this little boy.
I am very concerned about the placement of this little boy."

This afternoon, the boy's parents appeared in probate court for a hearing
on custody of the child, his 8-year-old brother and a 5-year-old sister who
had been living with another relative. The state moved to gain custody of
the three children, saying the mother, Tamarla Owens, was a drug addict who
had admitted that she had exposed the children to marijuana on a daily basis.

The judge said there were also reports that Ms. Owens had physically abused
one of her children. Mr. Owens, who was brought from the local jail, spoke
to the court, saying he was sorry for what had happened and acknowledging
that he had not always been a good father.

"I wish it had never happened," he said. "I just feel sorry for the other
child." Ms. Owens sobbed nearby, wiping her eyes with tissue.

Sheriff Robert Pickell said he went to the jail on Tuesday night to ask Mr.
Owens if he knew anything about the gun. The sheriff said Mr. Owens said
his son was frequently in trouble and had been in fights at school.

The authorities said the Owens boy did not seem to comprehend what had
happened and appeared nonchalant when interviewed by detectives on Tuesday.

"It was their impression the boy didn't understand what he had done, did
not appreciate the consequences of his actions and appeared to take this as
some sort of, well, that this just kind of happens like on television," Mr.
Busch, the county prosecutor, said at a crowded news conference this
morning. "This is a young boy, 6 years old, who cannot obviously form
criminal intent. He does not seem to understand the gravity of the event."

A day after the shooting, the public schools in this working-class town
remained closed. Flags flew at half staff. Residents left flowers and notes
and toys at the doors of the school.

The horror at Buell, the authorities say, was born of the anger of a little
boy who found a weapon under a blanket on the bed at home and used it on a
young girl he had quarreled with the day before.

Chad Ballard, who lived next door to the boy's family for three years
before the family was evicted, said the house had been raided by the police
several times. Cars were always stopping at the home late into the night,
Mr. Ballard said.

He said he often quarreled with the family. The Owens boy and his brother
often teased his dog, and when Mr. Ballard tried to stop it, the boys'
parents often intervened. "She would say, 'Stop yelling at my kids,' and I
would say, 'You need to take care of them.' "

Mr. Ballard said that the mother worked during the day and into the evening
and that the father was not around very often.

Recently, however, Ms. Owens was evicted from the home. She moved elsewhere
and often sent the two boys to stay with her brother and at least one
family friend in a house on Juliah Street, about a half-mile from Buell.

The two-bedroom home is a kind of makeshift auto shop. A Corvette sits on
the front lawn, propped up by cement blocks. Another car, its hood ajar,
sits to the back of the house next to a weathered John Deere snowmobile.

There are auto parts and mangled hub caps scattered outside the house,
candy wrappers, soda bottles and wires and equipment out front. The windows
are shaded with old blankets and broken windows are patched with blue tarp.
A dull light burns inside. A deep and muddy hole sits to the left of the
house.

"I didn't associate with them," said Will Oscar, 31, a neighbor who said he
was planning to move soon. "There was always a lot of traffic there; I
heard gunshots. I didn't feel safe. My car was stolen out of my driveway
twice."

He said he did not know the Owens boys were living next door. He said Ms.
Owens often dropped them off there. They sometimes teased his dog, he said,
but otherwise the boys were "just normal kids."

In school, the Owens boy was often in trouble, the authorities said today.
He had a social worker and had been in several fights. The authorities said
they had heard that he had recently been in a quarrel or scuffle with Kayla.

Three boys, walking by Buell today, said they witnessed the fight on
Monday. "He was fighting with that little girl a few days ago," said John
Owens, 13.

"We walked by and said 'Chill out,' " said Julius Irving, 10. Wayne Morris,
14, said: "Then this guy tried to get him to stop it and he picks up this
stick and starts hitting him. And the kid was a lot bigger."

Wayne said there were lots of drugs in the area. "We walk down the street,"
he said, "and we hear guys say, 'Weed? Weed?' "

Maranda Ide, 8, a third grader, said she had heard the gunshot. "I was in
my class, writing from the dictionary," she said. "I heard something go
'bang,' and I immediately started crying, because I knew it was a gunshot,
because we hear gunshots all the time around here."

Maranda said that she did not sleep on Tuesday night but that she was not
too afraid to go back to school. "I think tomorrow will probably be the
same as it was before the gun was fired," she said. "But I think I'll
probably cry for a while."

No date has been set for reopening the schools. The front door of Buell is
jammed with flowers, bunnies, teddy bears and candles. Cards read, "Kayla,
we won't forget you." There are baskets of M & M's and sunglasses, drawings
of broken hearts, splashed with crayon.

A neighbor, Rasu King, 31, said she was dropping off a candle and a teddy
bear. "I hope people realize how serious this is," she said. "If you can't
go to elementary school, you can't go anywhere."