By Donald P. Baker
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, December 6, 1997; Page A03

PADUCAH, Ky., Dec. 5—As a saddened community gathered today to mourn its dead, prosecutors suggested that the diminutive ninth-grader accused of killing three of his classmates may have based his attack on what he saw in a movie.

McCracken County Commonwealth's Attorney Tim Kaltenbach said that 14-year-old Michael Carneal may have planned the attack after watching "The Basketball Diaries," a 1995 adaptation of poet Jim Carroll's bleak 1960s autobiographical tale of teenage angst. According to Kaltenbach, friends of the boy said that about a year ago he saw the movie -- which opens with a student who had been taunted by classmates dreaming that he returns to the classroom and shoots his tormentors -- and told them he had been planning "something big" ever since.

Kaltenbach, who viewed the movie in his office Thursday, said afterward that "these movies are a factor on these kids. They don't decide on their own to carry out their anger or feelings by shooting people. They have to learn it from somewhere, and they learn it by watching these movies."

Three days after the shooting, that is as good an explanation as any for why a bespectacled, 5-foot-2 freshman, a B student and member of the school band, would calmly insert earplugs, draw a gun and shoot eight fellow students who had just ended a morning prayer meeting in the Heath High School lobby.

The Rev. Paul Donner of St. Paul Lutheran Church, where the Carneal family has worshiped nearly all of the 31 years Donner has been there, said Carneal's parents are as puzzled as anyone about their son's actions.

"If anyone has any answers, they would be glad to find them out," Donner said. He said the boy's parents are "asking themselves where they have failed, the same as I am asking myself where I failed" in ministering to him.

Senior Ben Strong, a minister's son who is the unofficial leader of the prayer circle, said Carneal, a friend of his, had warned him a few days earlier to avoid participating in Monday's session.

Strong, who was credited by high school principal Bill Bond with talking Carneal into putting down the pistol instead of reloading it, said Carneal "told me he was going to do something, but he wouldn't tell me what it was."

Investigators said another possible link to "The Basketball Diaries" could be its cynical view of religion. In the movie, Carroll says that when he was 8 years old, he invited God to his house to watch the World Series, "but he didn't show up."

But Donner disputed reports that Carneal is anti-religious. During two years of confirmation classes, Donner said, "We studied God's word together. Seven months ago, on the first Sunday in May, Michael knelt here at the altar and confessed his faith in Jesus Christ as his Savior. I believed him then; I believe him now. Michael is a Christian. What he did was a devastating act. It was not the act of an atheist. It was the act of a sinful Christian."

A confirmation card and a bookmark in the shape of a cross were among items taken from the boy's bedroom by detectives. The bulk of the seized material, however, was related to guns, according to an inventory provided by the sheriff's department. A wooden ammunition box in the room contained a dozen live rounds for a Remington .44 magnum, 26 empty ammo boxes -- capable of holding more than 2,100 rounds -- and the book "The Lore of Arms."

The suspect's father, Paducah lawyer John T. Carneal, told police that although he owns guns, to his knowledge his son had never fired one.

Police said the weapon used in the killings, a .22-caliber handgun, was among seven stolen by Carneal on Thanksgiving Day from a neighbor's garage. The burglary was not discovered until the neighbor's son reportedly recognized the gun in his friend's hand at the time of the shooting.

On the day of the slayings, Carneal, as usual, rode to school with his older sister, Kelly. In addition to the handgun, Carneal toted four of the other stolen guns -- two antique shotguns and two rifles and a supply of shells -- that he had wrapped in paper. He told Kelly that the long, heavily taped package contained props for a science exhibit.

Carneal, who has been interrogated three times since his arrest, insists he acted alone. But Sheriff Frank Augustus said: "I still don't believe him. I still believe someone else was involved or had knowledge, but under Kentucky law, I'm told we don't have enough to charge anyone (else)."

Augustus said: "We have 64,000 people sitting back, including myself, saying, `Hey, this kid didn't just walk into this school and start shooting for no reason.'

"I could stop this investigation right now, take this young man to court and convict him, but everyone in the county, especially me, and across the nation, wants to know why," Augustus said.

Kaltenbach said he expects to prosecute Carneal as an adult. If convicted of first-degree murder, the boy would serve a minimum of 25 years in prison; because of his youth, he cannot receive the death penalty.

The sheriff and the principal agree that victims were not targeted because they belonged to the informal prayer group. "They were shot just because they were there" in the school lobby in the moments before school started, Augustus said.

Of the five wounded students, two remain in area hospitals, one of them paralyzed from the waist down.

Thursday night, thousands stood in line for as long as 90 minutes to pay their respects to the dead girls, Nicole Hadley, 14; Jessica James, 17; and Kayce Steger, 15, who were dressed in their favorite school outfits. Many of the mourners inscribed farewell messages on specially designed "expression" caskets.

At today's funeral services, attended by an overflow crowd at the 2,000-seat Bible Baptist Heartland Worship Center, the emotional highlight came with the singing of the hymn, "The Prayer of St. Francis," by the Heath High School choir. Among the choir's members was Kelly Carneal, whom Bond said is "the likely valedictorian" of this year's senior class.