By mid-morning, the screams of Montebello Elementary students had subsided and streams of tears had dried. And as Principal Camille Bell assembled school pictures for Sean's obituary and memorial posters, the anger set in.

"I am furious," Bell said. "Because this didn't have to happen."

Sean's seventh grade classmates, who believed he would pull through,"were devastated," said Bell. "It was awful," she said, of greeting students with the news of Sean's death early this morning. "I had to stop because they were screaming so bad, they couldn't even hear me."

But, Bell made sure that her outfoing eighth graders, whose behavior had been challenging in the last year, heard her loud and clear. In a rousing speech about "choices," Bell said she brought her teenagers to tears, describing the 12-year-old's condition when she visited him in the hospital.

Though police said he was shot in the chest, Bell and Sean's family had confirmed that he was shot four times, including twice in the head. He was removed from life support Thursday night.

"It was time for him to go, because our Sean was gone," Bell said. "It was somebody's choice to fight that took our friend."

"They needed to know that in two weeks, I let them go. They will be judged by the choices they make. I don't want to read about them in the paper."

Bell said that while she appreciates the community outrage, she would like to see follow through.
"People tend to want to make a lot of noise when something happens, hold vigils, have marches, have meetings, and then that's it."

"As a community leader, I should be going to these kinds of meetings every other week."