Wash. boy, 9, to be charged in shooting of girl, 8
An Armin Jahr Elementary School student talks with a police officer in front of the school, Feb. 22, 2012, in Bremerton, Wash. / AP/Kitsap Sun
SEATTLE - A prosecutor says he expects to file charges against a 9-year-old boy who brought a gun to a Washington state elementary school that went off and critically hurt a young classmate.
Todd Dowell of the Kitsap County prosecutor's juvenile division says his office is still going through police reports, and he hasn't determined what the charges would be.
The boy is due in court for a preliminary hearing at 1:30 p.m. Thursday — 24 hours after emergency crews responded to the school shooting.
Eight-year-old Amina Kocer-Bowman remained in critical condition Thursday morning after undergoing surgery.
Dowell says under state law children between 8 and 12 years old can face charges if a court determines the child has the capacity to understand an act is wrong.
Investigators were trying to determine how the 9-year-old boy got the gun and why he brought it to school, a Bremerton, Wash., police spokesman said.
"At this stage of the investigation, detectives believe the shooting was accidental," Lt. Peter Fisher said in a statement late Wednesday.
At the end of Wednesday's school day, a bullet went through the backpack and hit Amina Kocer-Bowman. She remained in critical condition Thursday after surgery at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, said hospital spokeswoman Leila Gray.
The Bremerton Schools superintendent's office said the girl was shot in the abdomen.
KING-TV reported that her friends and relatives gave a "thumbs up" signal to reporters as they left the hospital late Wednesday.
The boy who brought the gun to Armin Jahr Elementary in Bremerton was taken into custody Wednesday after being booked into Kitsap County juvenile detention for investigation of unlawful possession of a gun, bringing a dangerous weapon to school and third-degree assault.
The gun was recovered from a classroom. Police did not immediately describe it.
There have been shootings at schools that involved younger children. In 2000, 6-year-old Kayla Rolland, a Michigan first-grader, was fatally shot by a 6-year-old classmate who brought a gun from home. Last year, a 6-year-old kindergartner at a Houston elementary school accidentally fired a gun as he was showing it off to friends, injuring three students.
Bremerton Schools spokeswoman Patty Glaser said the school where Wednesday's shooting happened, with about 400 students, was open for classes Thursday. Three counselors were available to talk with teachers, students and parents, she said.
The school is in a quiet residential neighborhood about 20 miles west of Seattle, across Puget Sound.
Fisher said officers and emergency crews were dispatched to the school around 1:30 p.m. Wednesday in response to a call that a student was shot by another student.
The school went into lockdown immediately after the shooting, Glaser said. Parents picked up their children later in the afternoon.
In the latest rating by the Brady Campaign, a national gun control advocacy group, Washington scored no points in the child safety category because the state does not require trigger locks for guns and lacks laws to prevent child access to firearms.
"Washington state is a loosely regulated state when it comes to firearms," said Gregory Roberts, executive director of Washington Cease Fire, a Brady Campaign affiliate.
Amanda Roth, a staff attorney for the San Francisco-based Legal Community Against Violence, said 27 states and the District of Columbia have some form of firearm child access prevention laws. Such laws can include requirements to use gun locks and criminal penalties for adults who allow children to get their hands on guns.
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To the person who has posted about our law enforcement. I am so strongly offended I felt the need to post. Here in Bremerton there have been recent stabbings, and a State Trooper lost his life today. The community as a whole is on edge and there are many of us who are grateful for our local police and how hard they have been working in keeping us safe. I was there when they converged on school grounds, and I for one was happy they were there. It was a sunny day. It was early release and many of us were ready to pick up our kids and play outside. It was a tragic situation, many children, and parents were crying. Our policeman are human, and could not help but be affected by the scene around them. I for one was also wearing my sunglasses when I finally got to embrace my daughter. Seriously, get a grip.
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