Three boys - one fifth-grader and two second-graders - brought a loaded handgun to school as part of a plot to shoot and stab a third-grade girl to death. The Billings Gazette article names the three boys (I thought juvenile offenders could not be named in news article), who hid the gun in a sandbox:
Sheriff Tim Fulton said the boys told investigators they intended to harm the young girl because she had teased two of them. The plot was uncovered late Wednesday morning, about a half-hour before recess, when another student alerted school officials...
The gun, a .22-caliber revolver, had two bullets in it, Hayworth said. School Superintendent Dave Shreeve said a box of bullets also was found nearby. The boys were identified in court records as Klint Cook and Levi Strait, both second-graders, and Blake Belgarde, a fifth-grader. They were charged Thursday in juvenile court with conspiracy to commit assault with a weapon.
"From the interviews (with investigators) I don't believe that they fully comprehended the full significance of their actions," Hayworth said. "But they understood that this was going to bring harm to her … and they intended that."
Sickening. I rarely sympathize with criminals, but second-graders? It's hard not to feel compassion for them (and anger at their parents). If the kids are this misguided now, what's a stint in juvenile detention going to do to them?
Posted by kswygert at March 18, 2004 09:21 PM