Youngest Manslaughter Suspect Faces Judge Thursday

Most Memorial Day parties this week were happy, carefree events where families and friends gathered to honor veterans, and eat and visit together. One holiday party in Brooklyn began that way, but ended in tragedy and horror. A skinny 9-year old girl, identified by the city only as Shanice K. to protect her identity, was playing with her best friend, 11-year old Queen Washington. They were close friends, their mothers were best friends, and Queen and her mother had been invited to Shanice’s home in Brooklyn for a holiday barbecue. Shanice’s mother left her apartment to borrow something from a neighbor, and when she returned, she was horrified to find that the two children had been arguing over a rubber ball, and her daughter had plunged a steak knife into Queen’s chest. The 11-year old had stumbled into the hallway and collapsed, where she lay bleeding to death. A series of panicked 911 calls brought authorities quickly, but it was too late to save the young victim’s life.

Shanice was arrested by police and taken to the station for questioning, where she allegedly confessed to the stabbing. Authorities in Brooklyn say that can’t remember a younger suspect ever being arrested for a killing in the city. Outside Queen’s home on Monday, her grief-stricken family told reporters that she had been a straight-A student in her fifth-grade class. She loved dancing, reading, and playing double Dutch jump rope. Her grandfather, Earl Washington, told them, "She was the star of the family. She was going places." Joyce Porter, Queen’s grandmother, said that Queen’s mother had called her to tell her the awful news. "She told me, ‘Queen is dead, and it was over a ball,’" Porter said.

At a hearing on Tuesday, a family court judge ordered that Shanice be detained until a hearing on Thursday, when the girl is expected to be charged with manslaughter. During the hearing, the skinny fourth-grader at first just sat and gazed around the courtroom expressionless, but when her mother began hugging her and sobbing, Shanice’s eyes welled up with tears. When police reached out to lead her daughter away, Shanice’s mother collapsed into weeping uncontrollably, saying repeatedly, "Oh, my baby." She left the courthouse without speaking to reporters. The attorney appointed defend Shanice, Nicole Barnum, declined to discuss the specifics of the case, saying only that it is "a tragedy for both families" involved and the family chose not to make a statement. But a friend of Shanice’s family who had gone to court to support Shanice’s mother told reporters that claims of the girl’s troubled past were not true. According to the woman, who gave her name as only Shirley, Shanice is a good girl with no history of violence.

According to a forensic psychology professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, several children a year kill people nationwide. "It’s very rare, but it does occur, and it has always occurred," said professor Louis Schleshinger. FBI national crime statistics support that claim, showing that in 2003, at least a dozen children between the ages of 9 and 12 committed murders. In 2002, the number was even higher, with 26 children being arrested for murder. In 2001, 14-year old Lionel Tate became the youngest person in recorded U.S. history to be sentenced to life in prison, after he was convicted of the murder of 6-year old Tiffany Eunick in Florida. He had been 12 years old at the time of the killing. In January of 2004, Tate won a new trial on appeal and went free under a plea deal allowing him to be placed under house arrest for a year, and then probation for 10 years. Now 18 years old, Tate was arrested last week on charges of holding up a pizza delivery man at gunpoint.