Readers like you keep news free for everyone.
More than 5,000 readers have already pitched in to keep free access to The Journal.
For the price of one cup of coffee each week you can help keep paywalls away.
AP Photo/Grand Rapids Press/Joel Bissell
Police investigating the stabbing at the playground in Michigan.
# Michigan
9-year-old boy stabbed in a playground dies from his injuries
The 12-year-old boy who allegedly carried out the attack called the police and turned himself in.
A 9-YEAR-OLD BOY has died after being repeatedly stabbed by another boy at a playground in the US.
A 12-year-old boy is expected to appear in family court today for a hearing over the stabbing of Michael Conner Verkerke.
A neighbour says she saw Michael run to his home at the Pinebrook Village mobile home park in Michigan last night and collapse on the porch. His mother saw her son bleeding and screamed “Where is the ambulance?”
Michael died after being rushed to a hospital.
Witnesses told investigators that four children were playing when one of them stabbed Michael with a knife.
Police say the older boy called the police and turned himself in.
Glen Stacey, who lives nearby, told The Grand Rapids Press that the older boy approached him after the attack 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.
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 motive in the attack was still being investigated, said Kentwood Police Chief Thomas Hillen.
Read: “Although he is our child… he should be sentenced to death”, say parents of Taiwan attack suspect >
Read: Here’s everything we know about the ‘secret serum’ used to treat an American with Ebola >
