Killing of Kayla Rolland

Kayla Renee Rolland (May 12, 1993 – February 29, 2000) was a six-year-old American girl from Mount Morris Township, Michigan, United States, who was fatally shot on February 29, 2000, by a six-year-old classmate at Buell Elementary School in Beecher Community School District. The boy had found the gun while living at his uncle's house; the house was a crack house where guns were frequently traded for drugs.

The killing drew worldwide attention due to the particularly young ages of the victim and the perpetrator: Rolland was the youngest school shooting victim in the United States until the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012, and her assailant remains the youngest fatal school shooting perpetrator to date. The boy was not charged with murder because of his age. Buell Elementary School closed in 2002 and was demolished in 2009.

19-year-old Jamelle James, a family friend with whom Owens was living, was charged with involuntary manslaughter for leaving the gun in a shoe box in his bedroom where the 6-year-old could access it. He and two other men, 19-year-old Robert Lee Morris III and 22-year-old Sir Marcus Winfrey, also faced federal firearm charges. Morris sold the weapon, which was stolen, to James and Winfrey. James and Morris pleaded guilty to possession of a stolen 12-gauge shotgun. Winfrey, an uncle of the shooter, pleaded guilty to possession of the stolen firearm used to kill Rolland.

Winfrey was sentenced to three years of probation. James later pleaded no contest to involuntary manslaughter and was sentenced to up to 15 years in prison. He was paroled in 2002, after serving two years and five months in prison. However, James remained imprisoned for his federal firearm conviction until 2003.