Flowers, notes at school where popular teacher fatally shot

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla.- Scores of grieving children, parents and colleagues brought flowers and notes Saturday to the middle school where a popular English teacher was fatally shot on the last day of classes.

In a courtroom across town, a judge ordered that 13-year-old Nathaniel Brazill remain in custody while a grand jury decides whether the honor student should be tried in Barry Grunow's death.

The seventh-grader had been sent home by an assistant principal Friday around 1 p.m. for throwing water balloons in class. According to police, he rode his bicycle back to school about two hours later with a semi-automatic pistol in his pocket.

The pistol - a compact, 5-inch model called a Raven - was loaded with four bullets he had stolen from his grandfather's dresser drawer a week before, Police Chief William Smith said.

Brazill was trying to talk to two girls in Grunow's class. When the teacher told him to leave, police say, he pulled out the gun and shot Grunow in the head. Grunow, 35, was the father of two and had worked at the school for seven years.

Police say the boy rode away on his bicycle, but flagged down a police officer about a quarter of a mile from the school and surrendered. He told investigators he liked Grunow.

''Everybody's talking about the gun, but we need to try to figure out what made him do that,'' said Corey Jackson, a pastor and neighbor of Brazill's.

Early Saturday, Brazill, wearing a two-piece khaki jail uniform, his wrists shackled, appeared before Palm Beach County Circuit Court Judge Jorge LaBarga and a courtroom packed with cameras and reporters.

His parents were visibly distraught, but the boy's expression was obstructed from view. He was flanked by two public defenders, who said they are still working on how to best represent their client.

''It is too premature, we need to spend more time with our client,'' said lawyer Damon Amedeo.

Brazill is being held at the Palm Beach Regional Juvenile Detention Center in West Palm Beach. The grand jury has to review the case by June 17.

Curtains were drawn Saturday at the home of Brazill's parents.

An elderly man answered the door and said the family was not yet ready to comment.

''As far as I know, he was real good,'' said Jackson, Brazill's neighbor. ''They were supposed to go to church with us last night. We're still in shock.''

Outside Lake Worth Middle School, a memorial of flowers and posters covered a 40-foot section of the school's fence. Parents and children hugged, cried and tried to console one another.

Many of the messages were addressed to ''Shaggy,'' a nickname given to Grunow because of his hair.

Students, parents and school officials said he was well-liked and known for unconventional methods, like reading J.R.R. Tolkien's ''The Hobbit'' aloud in class with different voices for the characters. Students said he regularly joined them in pickup basketball games after school.

At least 200 people stopped at the school Saturday to speak with grief counselors, who also planned to be there Sunday.

''I know how my children are taking this, and I just don't have the answers,'' said Beverly Hart.

Her 12-year-old daughter Amber should have been in Grunow's class, but her mother asked her to stay home. It's a practice Hart has followed the past few years with all her children on the last day of classes out of concern that kids are likely to bring weapons or fight, she said.

Even though she was absent, Hart came home to find Amber ''shaking from head to toe hysterically on the couch'' Friday after finding out about the shooting.

''He was a great man. I always enjoyed it when my kids were going to be in his classes,'' said Hart. ''Every way you look at it, it's a tragedy. It's scary.''