Killing of Kayla Rolland

On February 29, 2000, six-year-old Kayla Renee Rolland was fatally shot by a six-year-old male classmate at Buell Elementary School in the Beecher Community School District, Mount Morris Township, Michigan. The shooting occurred during a change of classes, in the presence of a teacher and 22 students, on a staircase. The boy reportedly told Rolland "I don't like you" before firing. The bullet struck her right arm and severed a vital artery; she was pronounced dead later that morning at Hurley Medical Center while in cardiac arrest.

The perpetrator had found a loaded Davis Industries P-32 .32-caliber handgun under blankets at the home of his uncle, where he had been living with his mother and older brother after she was evicted from their home. The uncle's residence was reportedly a location where guns were frequently traded for drugs. The boy had a documented history of behavioral problems at school, including a prior stabbing incident with a pencil and previous physical altercations, and had approached Rolland the day before the shooting.

Because Michigan lacked a codified minimum age of criminal responsibility, prosecutors determined the six-year-old could not be charged with a crime on the legal grounds that a child of his age lacked the capacity to form criminal intent. Genesee County prosecutor Arthur Busch stated the boy had "no idea what he had done" and could not comprehend the gravity of the event. He was placed, along with two younger siblings, with an aunt following the shooting.

Three adults faced charges related to the firearm. Jamelle James, 19, a family friend with whom the shooter had been living, was charged with involuntary manslaughter for storing the handgun in a shoe box in his bedroom where it was accessible to the child. On August 22, 2000, James pleaded no contest to involuntary manslaughter and was later sentenced to two to fifteen years in prison; he was paroled in 2002 after serving roughly two years and five months, but remained in federal custody on a separate firearm conviction until November 2003. Robert Lee Morris III, 19, who had sold the stolen handgun to James and to Sir Marcus Winfrey, pleaded guilty to possession of a stolen firearm (a shotgun found during a search of James's home) and was sentenced to 18 months in federal prison. Winfrey, 22, an uncle of the shooter, pleaded guilty to possession of the stolen handgun used in the killing and was sentenced to three years of probation.

At the time, Rolland was believed to be the youngest school shooting victim in U.S. history, a distinction that stood until the December 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting; her assailant remains the youngest known fatal school shooting perpetrator in U.S. history. Buell Elementary School closed in 2002 and was demolished in 2009. The case was referenced by President Bill Clinton in arguments for stricter gun laws following a separate shooting in Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania the next day, and was cited in Michael Moore's 2002 documentary "Bowling for Columbine." As of a 2020 report, the former shooter, then an adult, had been convicted at age 18 of a felony related to home invasion and larceny in Bay City, Michigan, and sentenced to probation.