MICHAEL CONNER VERKERKE - 9 yo (8/14) - / Suspect: Jamarion Lawhorn (12 yo) - Kentwood, MI

Police: 9-year-old dies after playground stabbing

© Landov: Joel Bissell, MLive.com ​
44 min ago | By Associated Press


KENTWOOD, Mich. (AP) — A 9-year-old boy has died after being stabbed repeatedly by another child at a playground at a mobile home park in western Michigan, police said Tuesday.

Police in Kentwood, near Grand Rapids, said in a statement that Michael Conner Verkerke ran home and collapsed on the porch around 6 p.m. Monday after he was stabbed. An ambulance was called, the department said, and he died after being taken to a hospital.

Witnesses told police four children were playing when one of them, for an unknown reason, pulled a knife and stabbed the boy.

Police say the child who stabbed him was brought to a hospital for evaluation before being taken to the Kent County Juvenile Detention Center pending charges. Police didn't release details about the child, but TV stations WOOD and WZZM report he's a 12-year-old.

"The suspect left the playground, then went to a nearby residence where he asked to use the phone. He called police to turn himself in for the incident," police said in a statement.

Glen Stacey, who lives nearby, tells The Grand Rapids Press that the older boy approached him after the stabbing and asked to use his phone. He said the boy called 911 to report the attack. Stacey said he also called police and described the boy as "very calm."

"The only time he raised his voice was when the police came," Stacy said of the boy.

When police arrived, Stacy said they first went to aid the stabbing victim. When officers started heading toward the playground area, he said the boy on Stacy's lawn wanted police to pick him up and yelled "Hello. I'm right here. You're going the wrong way."

The Associated Press left messages seeking updated information from police. An autopsy is planned by the Kent County Medical Examiner's Office.



http://www.startribune.com/nation/269962571.html

Town in shock after 9-year-old boy is stabbed to death on playground

POSTED 7:04 AM, AUGUST 7, 2014
BY CNN WIRES

A family is grieving and a Michigan community is in shock Wednesday night 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 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.

“I thought he was calling for his parents to come pick him up,” homeowner Glen Stacy told CNN. He wasn’t. “He called 911,” he said.

Stacy described Lawhorn as “calm and collected” throughout, and that he told the 911 dispatcher, “”Hi, I just stabbed someone, please pick me up and come kill me, I want to end my life.”

The boy then calmly handed back the phone with the operator still on the line, according to Stacy, and they waited for police to arrive. “At no point did I feel threatened,” he said.

Stacy said that when the first officers arrived on the scene, they ran toward the playground, which was in the opposition direction. That prompted Lawhorn to raise his voice for the first time, according to Stacy.

“Hey! I’ve over here!” Stacy said he shouted. “Let’s do this. I’m ready,” he said as he walked toward them with his hands on his head, Stacy said.

A competency hearing will be held soon, according to police, but Becker has already predicted an outcome: “My gut tells me they will go for an insanity plea,” he said.

One expert said that based on the circumstances and violent nature of the act, it would appear Lawhorn — who turned 12 in March — suffers from mental illness.

“The instrument in this case says something about his state of mind,” said Dr. Charles Williams, a child psychotherapist at Drexel University in Philadelphia. “It’s easy to pick up a gun and shoot someone, but to stab someone repeatedly with a knife — that’s a very personal and very angry act from a psychological standpoint.”

In Kentwood, a GoFundMe page was established Tuesday to pay for Conner’s funeral. By Wednesday evening, 166 people donated more than $7,000 for the cause.

Lawhorn is being held at the Kent County Detention Center. A preliminary hearing has been scheduled for August 13.

http://fox2now.com/2014/08/07/town-in-shock-after-9-year-old-boy-is-stabbed-to-death-on-playground/

Why didn't an adult run to help this poor little boy?  How could he have been left to run home? Has someone rushed to him and kept him still and applied pressure to his wound(s) he may have lived.    
And it is sad too that once again a child wanted to die, he wanted the police to kill him.  What a sad world.

Ladibug, I thought the exact same thing.  Poor little boy just wanted to get home to his mommy.  Sad beyond words.

History of abuse at home of 12-year-old murder suspect

Christa E Graban, WZZM
1:23 p.m. EDT August 26, 2014


Jamarion Lawhorn, 12

KENTWOOD, Mich. (WZZM)— Newly-obtained court records indicate the home of a 12-year-old murder suspect has a history of abuse.

Jamarion Lawhorn, 12, is charged as an adult with the open murder of 9-year-old Connor Verkerke. Jamarion is accused of repeatedly stabbing Connor on a Kentwood playground on Aug. 4. According to court documents and neighbors near the crime scene, Jamarion admitted to taking several pills and said the murder was part of a bigger plan to end his own life, believing if he killed someone else, he would be sentenced to die in an electric chair.

Court records show the state has petitioned to terminate the parental rights of Jamarion's mother, Anita. Three other children were removed from her home two days after the murder. In the documents, Kentwood police described the home as unsafe with a history of abuse; police said one child at the home had multiple unexplained fractures.

Earlier this month, Jamarion waived his rights to a preliminary hearing. At that time, a judge ordered a psychological examination. Jamarion's lawyer tells WZZM 13 that the main focus during a hearing Tuesday was that pending psychological examination, but no date for the exam has been finalized.

http://www.wzzm13.com/story/news/local/kentwood/2014/08/26/jamarion-lawhorn-kentwood-murder-connor-verkerke-anita/14624575/