13-year-old girl shot dead on Miami school bus
MIAMI (AP) - A 13-year-old girl was shot to death in front of her sister and several other students while riding a charter school bus Tuesday, Miami-Dade police said.
A male student was in custody but authorities did not release his name or age and said they are still interviewing him. A gun was also recovered at the scene in Homestead, south of Miami, but authorities didn't say where or how many times the victim was shot.
"We still don't know what the motive may have been," said police spokesman Det. Alvaro Zabaleta.
Eight other children, including the victim's 7-year-old sister, were on the bus but were not harmed. Authorities took the children and the bus driver to a police station to be interviewed.
The victim, who has not been identified, attended charter middle school Palm Glades Preparatory Academy. The victim's sister went to nearby Summerville Advantage Academy.
Concerned parents gathered at the shooting site, which was cordoned off by crime scene tape as authorities combed the bus for evidence and gathered children's backpacks and belongings. The shooting occurred about seven minutes away from the school.
Grief counselors were on their way, but the school was relatively calm as most of the students had not yet heard about the shooting. About a dozen parents picked up their children early, said Lynn Norman-Teck, a spokeswoman for Florida Consortium of Public Charter School. Only a throng of TV news crews camped outside signaled the violence from earlier in the morning.
The school principal walked through every classroom shortly after hearing about the shooting to make sure the students were safe.
The school bus was not equipped with video surveillance equipment.
A phone message left for the private school bus company was not immediately returned.
A male student was in custody but authorities did not release his name or age and said they are still interviewing him. A gun was also recovered at the scene in Homestead, south of Miami, but authorities didn't say where or how many times the victim was shot.
"We still don't know what the motive may have been," said police spokesman Det. Alvaro Zabaleta.
Eight other children, including the victim's 7-year-old sister, were on the bus but were not harmed. Authorities took the children and the bus driver to a police station to be interviewed.
The victim, who has not been identified, attended charter middle school Palm Glades Preparatory Academy. The victim's sister went to nearby Summerville Advantage Academy.
Concerned parents gathered at the shooting site, which was cordoned off by crime scene tape as authorities combed the bus for evidence and gathered children's backpacks and belongings. The shooting occurred about seven minutes away from the school.
Grief counselors were on their way, but the school was relatively calm as most of the students had not yet heard about the shooting. About a dozen parents picked up their children early, said Lynn Norman-Teck, a spokeswoman for Florida Consortium of Public Charter School. Only a throng of TV news crews camped outside signaled the violence from earlier in the morning.
The school principal walked through every classroom shortly after hearing about the shooting to make sure the students were safe.
The school bus was not equipped with video surveillance equipment.
A phone message left for the private school bus company was not immediately returned.
Florida. Weirdos everywhere have NOTHING on Florida.
No matter who we blame; the child shooter, the "system", the parents, the gun owner, the gun maker, it does no good (as recent history has proven). What is needed is EDUCATION! The parents AND the schools both need to be involved. Teach kids about guns. Let them at least observe the power of such a weapon in person, in a controlled environment, and if the kid is willing let them fire a weapon.It worked for me; my dad had us out target practicing at a relatively young age, my sister and I understood the danger of mishandling a weapon early. Heck, instead of schools taking kids on stupid field trips to boring places, why not arrange with a local shooting range to do a field trip to observe?
Rest in Peace little one. Much to soon to go.
Her 7 year old ssiter saw this happen. I can't even come close to imagining what is happening in her head. 2 real victims here. So sad!
sister, damn it!
Why do people allways correct other's. Grammer Police to the Rescue.
 @cpt.iceman Grammar, Cap. (Hee hee hee!)
Have a great Thanksgiving!
It's ok, er, okay, er all right to correct my own before they bust me!
they should just make bullet proof vests part of the official school uniform down there.
I saw a bullet proof Back Pack for kids.
So young! I sure hope it was accidental. Which will only make it slightly less tragic.
 @Lips As kinda of an update to the story.  The police believe it was accidental.  The 15 year old boy was showing off the hand gun on the bus when it discharged.  The police are not releasing the boy from JD. Â
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It's sad that anyone would give a boy a hand gun and they should be charged in this case.
 @MFMFIM Hmmm... very sad. Bad, but better than intentionally. 15 is old enough to know better, though.
 @MFMFIM  @Lips unless he is a complete moron but most likely he wanted to make himself look like a big shot, so as far as I am concerned he can spend a good portion of his life behind bars, because you can't fix stupid.Â
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 @MFMFIM Do you mind if I ask where you received your information that this was an accident? That he was showing the gun off when it discharged?
 @Lips I don't know him so I can't judge him.  Does most 15 year olds know better, yes.  Does he, I don't know.
 @MFMFIM  @Lips how do you know anyone gave him the gun? maybe he took it from home, or maybe he stole it, even if his parents had it at home, he is old enough to know better then to take the gun and needs to be charged for this young girls death.
 @MFMFIM  @Lips If it were a small child I would agree, but we don't know  yet where he got the gun from for all we know maybe the little punk broke into someones home and stole it, or stole it from his own parents, people like you need to stop defending idiots
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 @BarbWire  @Lips If he got it from home, he had more access then he should of.  Then his parents are libel for letting him have access for a loaded firearm.  But to really answer your question, I don't know how he had access to the firearm and you don't know ether. Â
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I don't have any problem with him being charge with the death of the girl.  Many states and cities charge the provider of the firearm with the same crime as the perpetrator.  I think this is fair. Â
So sorry to learn that the girl has died... Condolences to her family and friends for their loss... Â Â
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Many questions not yet answered... and some that we might never know the answers to....
do they really have to include that there message left for the bus company was not immediately returned, like they should be a priority above the families and the law.
Now parents have to worry about the saftey of their children on a school bus. Still no shock value these days. Traggic loss, so sad.
With no seatbelts in most school buses, parents should already be worried about their children on a school bus.
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No one else sees the irony that school buses are one of the places belts are not required?
@Portlander29 lots of reasons there are no seat belts on school buses. See http://www.wisegeek.com/why-are-there-no-seatbelts-on-school-buses.htm#lbss for some of them. Like good luck getting 40 third graders into proper seat belts.
 @Portlander29 How would that have helped in this case?
I was responding to "now parents have to worry about the safety of their children on a school bus" comment...I was not saying a seat belt would have prevented someone from getting shot. Just saying parents should already worry about their children on a school bus.
 @Jamie  @Portlander29Â
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Well if they just immobilized riders using straps....
What a horrific tragedy! This is heart wrenching. There are so many questions to be answered and yet this will never truly be understood. My heart goes out to the family of this little girl and the other children on the bus who witnessed something so terrible.
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What is this world coming to that you have to shot a little girl on the school bus?
The 13 yr. old girl DIED according to the limited info....The shooter is listed as 13 also but may have just turned 13 or may perhaps be just shy of 14, either way both the victim and the shooter are children.....So WHO is legally/morally liable? The parent of the shooter or whom ever made the gun accessable to the shooter. Arrest the adult who possessed the gun for murder
FreerideNOT it's both. The kid for taking the firearm and the parent who did not secure it. I think the owner of the firearm should get more time. He should have had it locked up!!!
@FreerideNOT It's "whoever," not "whom ever." Even if you split it into two words.
@Mechanic This just shows that you can read but don't take the time to comprehend what the writer is trying to get across......BTW: being the grammer police must pay pretty well?
@Mechanic OHHHH God here come the grammar police. watch your spelling, they have nothing better to do obviously!
@FreerideNOT Pretty sure I knew right from wrong when I was 13. The killer is responsible for the action in this case.
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@Portlander29 Wanna bet! I don't know of a single state that tries 13 year olds as adults. I do not know of a single state that allows children to own guns, I do know that the parents are LEGALLY responsible for the actions of their children and are sued for damages etc. that their children cause. BTW: When are you going to be 13, oh in 3 yrs. you say thats great....Just remember that when you become 18 your are legally responsible assuming you are not limited in your mental abilities, so being that far under 18 you get a FREERIDE
@Portlander29 Children have limited ability determine right or wrong and determine the reprecussion from their acts. In order for a juvenile to be tried as an adult they must be remanded/waivered to adult courts where they are viewed as adults and are are afforded the same rights/protections/appeals etc.. The youngest executed was 14 yrs. old in 1944, however there was a 10 yr. old executed in the 1650's, my how times have changed.
@theprodigal @FreerideNOT @Portlander29 Maybe you should google "youngest tried as an adult"...plenty of examples of kids that age and as young as 11 being tried as an adult.
 @FreerideNOT  @Portlander29 "I don't know of a single state that tries 13 year olds as adults."  That could be one of the things wrong with our justice system.  When minors commit a crime, there are no real consequences.
@FreerideNOT While I would agree with you that, in the eyes of the law, the parents are responsible for children, let's not forget that NO parent can watch a child 24/7. I have also learned from personal experience that, even though a parent puts forth every effort to teach the child to live right, a child can totally disregard what the parents are trying to teach. Perhaps the boy slipped out without his parents' knowledge and stole the gun. On a moral level, how can the parents be held responsible for that (unless they are teaching him that lifestyle)?
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As far as the adult who possessed the gun being arrested for murder? What if, as I proposed in my first paragraph, the gun was stolen? We simply have no information as to how the boy obtained the gun so I would refrain from passing judgment on the gun's owner until we know how the boy got the gun.
@theprodigal Hide and watch the parent (if the gun was the parents) will be charged criminally. It is the absolute responsibility of any parent to make sure that children do NOT have access to any firearms without a parents/responsible adult being present......A close friend of mine has many guns and has children, he has a very big commericial type gun safe, in a double locked room. One of the locks is a digital lock, and is thinking of putting an alarm on the room as he says it is his responsibility that the children and their friends are safe from the guns he has in the home.......If the parent owned the gun there will be criminal charges and the victims parents will sue the shooter and his parents.....wait a few weeks and recheck the story, it will happen.
 @FreerideNOT  @theprodigal The best Gun Safe in the world is teaching your children responsibility AND Gun safety.  Children must learn that Guns are NOT toys and will/can kill.  Without education, curiosity will end up killing more than the cat.
Well, I sure hope the girl will be OK... Â lots of info not yet known, but if they airlifted her to the hospital, it probably wasn't just a minor scratch... Â Best hopes and wishes for her recovery...
Wow, there was a lot of UNCLEAR, NOT KNOWN in that article. Lots of words but nothing of substance.
Just like your post.
 @RalphCramden Sorry couldn't see any difference from any other KATU article.
 @RalphCramden Should make excellent fodder for most of the commenters :)