'Justice for Kain': Family of 12-year-old shot and killed in Red Lion calls for justice
On April 1, 12-year-old Kain Heiland was shot and killed in Red Lion.
He'd had a disagreement with another neighborhood boy – the boy, according to court documents, had insulted Kain’s mother and Kain objected – and the other boy, 13 years old, climbed up a balcony railing to his home in the first block of First Avenue in Red Lion, fetched his father’s laser-sighted .380 Kel-Tec handgun and shot Kain in the back.
On Monday, one month to the day after Kain was murdered, his grandmother, joined by several family members and friends, stood vigil outside the York County Judicial Center, seeking justice for Kain and asking why the 13-year-old has not been charged with murder.
“The coroner says it was a homicide,” said Linda Arvin, Kain’s maternal grandmother. “There’s no question who did it. Why hasn’t he been charged?”
Previously: Red Lion boy was fatally shot by acquaintance, 13, state police search warrants allege
More by Argento: York County man star witness against Jehovah’s Witnesses in PA probe of child sexual abuse
The York County District Attorney’s office would not comment on the case, saying only that it remains an ongoing investigation.
Arvin said the apparent delay has left Kain’s family “hanging in limbo.” She said, “It’s the only thing you can think of, the questions you have in your mind, and there are no answers.”
“We realize that it will take a long time for the hearings,” she said. “But (the 13-year-old) should be in custody.”
She said, “I wouldn’t want him sleeping in the same house as me. I’d be scared to death. He shouldn’t be free to do whatever he wants. My grandson is not free to do anything.”
She believes that the 13-year-old should be charged as an adult, citing Pennsylvania law that mandates juveniles accused of murder be charged as adults. “It doesn’t matter what age,” she said.
She also believes that the 13-year-old's father should be charged with something, as was the mother of a 6-year-old who shot his teacher in Virginia. “Kids shouldn’t have access to guns,” Arvin said.
The shooting, she said, is “crazy.” She cited a number of recent shootings and killings, including the 6-year-old boy who shot his teacher, the shootings of people who rang the wrong doorbell, or approached the wrong car in a parking lot, or pulled into the wrong driveway, or was using a leaf blower in his own yard.
“This is insanity,” she said. “I don’t understand it. What’s this world coming to?”
Kain’s family is struggling with the loss, she said. “I don’t understand,” she said. His younger brothers, 10, 4 and 5, don’t understand either. She said the 10-year-old brother is angry and Kain’s younger brothers only know that “Kain got shot by a bad guy and died,” Arvin said.
Kain was a good kid, she said. He stood up to bullies. He always made people laugh and liked making funny noises, his grandmother said.
The vigil – she sat on a folding chair, holding a sign, painted in Kain’s favorite colors, blue and orange, that read “Justice for Kain – is intended to keep Kain’s story alive. “It hasn’t been in the news, except for a couple of days after,” she said. “We don’t want people to forget.”
Columnist/reporter Mike Argento has been a York Daily Record staffer since 1982. Reach him at mike@ydr.com.
This article originally appeared on York Daily Record: Family calls for charges in killing of 12-year-old Red Lion boy
