(CNN) -- A family is grieving and a Michigan community is in shock after a 9-year-old boy was stabbed to death at a playground in his neighborhood this week. 

The shock felt in Kentwood, just outside of Grand Rapids, is as much over the sudden and senseless loss of Michael Conner Verkerke as it is over the circumstances of his death: The person accused of stabbing him was a 12-year-old he had just met at the playground. 

Conner was playing with three other children Monday "when one of the children, for an unknown reason, pulled out a knife and repeatedly stabbed one of the other children," a Kentwood Police Department statement said. 

Police say the attacker is 12-year-old Jamarion Lawhorn. A motive, if there is one, is unknown at this point, as the boys were not acquainted, according to Kent County Prosecutor Chris Becker. 

Lawhorn was charged Tuesday with murder. Though he'll be tried in a juvenile court, it will be as an adult, according to Becker, who added that his office has not yet decided whether the murder charges will be first or second degree. 

Charles Boekeloo, Lawhorn's court-appointed attorney, said he met his client for the first time at his arraignment Tuesday but had no further comment. Boekeloo entered a not guilty plea on the youth's behalf. 

Police said that after he was stabbed, Conner managed to run back home before he collapsed on the porch. An ambulance rushed him to a hospital, where he died Monday night. 

Lawhorn, meanwhile, "left the playground then went to a nearby residence where he asked to use the phone," Kentwood Chief of Police Thomas Hillen said. 
Was there a motive?
unknown 