A 15-year-old boy pulled the trigger of a gun three times as he tried to kill a 14-year-old on a school bus in Maryland, but the gun malfunctioned each time, prosecutors say.
Court documents reveal chilling new details of an attempted murder that has shaken many people in the D.C. area and led to 18 criminal charges against the 15-year-old.
Kaeden Holland was arrested Tuesday after law enforcement searched for him in the weeks following the May 1 attack. He was charged as an adult and made his first court appearance on Thursday via closed circuit TV.
His attorney argued he was not a flight risk, but prosecutors and the judge disagreed. He was ordered held without bond, to remain in adult detention.
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The assault was captured on the bus' surveillance camera.
“It’s pretty horrific and hard to watch, to see the terror on the victim’s face,” assistant state’s attorney Sherrie Waldrup said Thursday.
In court documents, prosecutors laid out a dramatic timeline of what happened on the school bus in Riverdale Park.
The bus was stopped at Iverson Street and Sutler Drive when three young people boarded and began to attack the 14-year-old, police previously said.
Holland pulled out a handgun, pointed it at the victim’s head and pulled the trigger, prosecutors said.
“The gun made an audible click and the gun malfunctioned,” prosecutors said.
He racked the gun to try to correct it and pistol-whipped the boy, “leaving an indentation of the barrel of the gun on his right side temple.”
Two other young people punched and kicked the boy.
Then Holland pulled the trigger a second time. The gun malfunctioned again.
He racked it again and then hit the boy with the gun, his hands and his feet.
The boy tried to grab the gun away from him, but Holland pointed it at him and pulled the trigger a third time. Again, it did not fire.
Holland pointed the gun at the school bus driver and bus aide, and then he and the two other young people ran away, prosecutors say.
Police found three, live 9 mm cartridges on the floor of the bus, prosecutors said.
The 14-year-old victim was able to escape with only minor injuries, police said.
His mother spoke with News4 moments after learning that Holland had been found and arrested.
“Thank God. God is good,” she said.
The 18 charges against Holland include attempted murder, assault, reckless endangerment and possessing a loaded handgun.
“We are committed to pursuing this case to the fullest extent of the law,” State’s Attorney Aisha Braveboy said.
Holland’s attorney said the teen was about to surrender at his office on Tuesday afternoon when police suddenly moved in and took him into custody.
Police previously said they arrested three other teens for the attack on the bus: a 14-year-old boy from Suitland, a 15-year-old boy from Temple Hills and a 14-year-old girl from Oxon Hill. They also were charged as adults.
Investigators said the attack stemmed from an ongoing gang dispute.
Two days after the near-killing on the bus, a 23-year-old woman, Kaijah McCoy, was found shot and killed in a residential building on Jamison Street NE. Holland is suspected in the homicide, law enforcement sources said. D.C. police announced a 15-year-old boy was arrested in the case but didn’t release his name because of his age.
