At the time , Kayla Rolland was believed to have been the youngest school shooting victim in United States history , which was not surpassed until the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in December 2012 . Dedrick Owens became the youngest school shooter in the United States , and the legal claim that at that age he would lack the ability to form intent , he was not charged with the murder . In most U.S. states , six-year-olds are not liable for crimes they commit , and the Genesee County Prosecutor Arthur Busch called on the citizens to collectively hug the boy presumably out of pity and sympathy . In an 1893 ruling , the U.S. Supreme Court declared that " children under the age of 7 years could not be guilty of felony , or punished for any capital offense , for within that age the child is conclusively presumed incapable of committing a crime . " This is followed in many U.S. states
Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting
Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting
Shooting of Kayla Rolland