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Carneal had killed three schoolmates, Nicole Hadley, 14, Kayce Steger, 15, and Jessica James, 17. Five others were injured, one of them paralyzed from the waist down. Many wondered in the days immediately after the bloodbath why Carneal did it. Authorities have talked about things that may have inspired Carneal, including a dream sequence in the 1995 movie Basketball Diaries in which a character played by Leonardo DiCaprio walks into a classroom and blows away several students with a shotgun. Principal Bond says Carneal was teased all his life. "This young man had a lot of hatred." Referring to Carneal's writings, Bond says the boy had "pent-up frustration that boiled over."
McCracken County Sheriff Frank Augustus says Carneal has admitted having an enemy, one, however, who was not part of the prayer circle. Augustus believes Carneal may have had co-conspirators as well, pointing out that the boy showed up with an arsenal big enough to arm five others. Police found two shotguns, two rifles and a pistol, all neatly tied up in a blanket. The weapons were supposedly stolen from a neighbor of the Carneals'. The neighbor's child has said that Carneal knew where the key to the gun cabinet was hidden. Sheriff's deputies have also learned that the home of a friend where Carneal spent the weekend contains a stash of guns. "We feel someone else knew about this," says Augustus. "If they did, they should have told someone."
The town and its churches are trying to find good in the catastrophe. There is some consolation that Hadley's heart and lungs were donated to save other lives. Signs are going up declaring WE FORGIVE YOU, MICHAEL. "I can't speak for him," says Ben Strong, "but I think he felt regret." "The only thing left to do is pray," says Ben's father, Pastor Bobby Strong. On the morning after the shooting, 300 students showed up for the prayer circle. "I think it's opened a lot of people," says Ben Strong. "I think they really know there's no other place to turn."