Michael Jerome Barber
Authorities have now filed formal charges against a Huffman High School student in Wednesday's deadly shooting of a classmate.
Michael Jerome Barber is charged with manslaughter and certain persons forbidden to possess pistol for bringing a gun onto campus in the death of 17-year-old Courtlin Arrington, said Jefferson County District Attorney Mike Anderton, call the death a "horrific tragedy.''
The Jefferson County District Attorney's Office on Friday announced the charge against the 17-year-old, a Huffman junior and wide receiver on the school's football team. Barber has been held in the Birmingham City Jail following his release from UAB Hospital just hours after the shooting.
He will now be transferred to the Jefferson County Jail where he will be held on $75,300 bond. Birmingham police detectives took their evidence to prosecutors for review of potential charges on Thursday and they resumed that review Friday morning before issuing the warrant.
Under Alabama law, the crime of manslaughter is committed when a person recklessly causes the death of another person, or causes the death of another person under circumstances that would constitute murder ...except that he or she causes the death due to a sudden heat of passion caused by provocation recognized by law, and before a reasonable time for the passion to cool and for reason to reassert itself.
Manslaughter is a Class B felony. Arrington is Birmingham's 20th homicide victim this year. In all of Jefferson County, there have been 29 slayings.
"Our hearts go out to the family of Ms. Arrington, all of her friends and those whose lives would have been changed through her nursing dreams had this event not occurred,'' Anderton said. "This is a parent's worst nightmare. We expect the charges will be heard through the court system and justice meted out to the person responsible."
"Please know that the Jefferson County District Attorney's Office stands strong with the Huffman High School Vikings,'' Anderton said. "The Birmingham School Board, and the Birmingham Police Department is denouncing the continued use of firearms by anyone to settle disputes. This is especially true for the students of our county, where they should be and fell safe in the learning environment of a school."
A motive has not been released. Initially, police said the shooting appeared accident but after reviewing video of the shooting and interviewing witnesses, that assessment changed.
The shooting happened at 3:45 p.m. Wednesday. School was dismissing for the day when the gunfire erupted. There were other students in the classroom - some just feet away - when the shooting happened.
Authorities have not said where Arrington was shot, but rescue workers said she was given CPR at the scene and en route to UAB Hospital but was pronounced dead upon arrival at 4:16 p.m. Barber suffered a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the leg. He was treated in the emergency room and quickly released into police custody.
A woman at the police station later Wednesday, who said she was the boy's mother, said she had not been told his condition, but she did not believe he had a gun. She and other family members gathered there declined further comment. Friends of the student said he had been robbed on campus the previous day, and that likely is why he had a gun at school.
Arrington was going to graduate in May, had already been accepted into college and had dreams to become a nurse. Friends and relatives gathered at the family's eastern Birmingham home Thursday to mourn the loss of Courtlin.
On Thursday, Birmingham City Schools Superintendent Lisa Herring acknowledged that the school - one of the largest in the city - has two working metal detectors but said they were not in use on Wednesday. She said she has already requested additional metal detectors for Birmingham City Schools.
Three school resource officers were on campus Wednesday when the shooting happened, but authorities didn's say where the SROs were when the gunfire began Wednesday.
During the National School Walkout March 14, Birmingham students will stand outside for 18 minutes instead of 17, in memory of Arrington along with the 17 students lost at the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, Herring said.
"We have lost one of our brightest and best scholars, Courtlin Arrington, to senseless gun violence," she said. "She was energetic, friendly and well-liked by peers and teachers alike. We have more than 23,000 students at Birmingham City Schools, and when one of them is harmed, all are impacted."