Prosecutors on Friday charged the parents of a teenager accused of murdering four students at his Michigan high school with involuntary manslaughter, saying the couple appear to have bought him the weapon as a Christmas present and dismissed warning signs as late as the morning of the shooting that he might be planning the rampage.
James and Jennifer Crumbley each face four counts and are expected to be arraigned later on Friday, three days after authorities say their 15-year-old son, Ethan, carried out the deadliest US school shooting of 2021. He is being held without bond on two dozen counts, including murder.
“These charges are intended to hold the individuals who contributed to this tragedy accountable and also send a message: that gun owners have a responsibility,” Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald told a news conference on Friday.
Four days before the shooting, Ethan accompanied his father to a local gun shop, where James Crumbley bought a semi-automatic handgun, prosecutors said.
Later that day, Ethan posted photos of the gun on social media, writing, “Just got my new beauty today” and adding a heart emoji. His mother posted the next day that the two of them were “testing out his new Christmas present,” McDonald said.
Photos of three of the four teens killed in the Oxford High School shooting are posted on a store window. Credit:
Michigan law prohibits those under 18 years of age from buying or possessing firearms, except in limited circumstances such as hunting with a license and a supervising adult.
Prosecutors described several chilling warning signs in the days leading up to the shooting at Oxford High School, about 60km north of Detroit. On November 21, a teacher saw Ethan Crumbley searching for ammunition on his phone during class and alerted school officials, who left messages for his mother that went unreturned.
In a text message to her son that day, prosecutors said, Jennifer Crumbley wrote, “LOL, I’m not mad at you. You have to learn not to get caught.”
The morning of the shooting, a teacher discovered a drawing that Ethan Crumbley had made depicting a handgun, a bullet, and a bleeding figure. The words “Blood everywhere” and “The thoughts won’t stop – help me” were also written on the sheet, among other messages, according to McDonald.
Ethan Crumbley is being held without bond on two dozen counts, including murder.Credit:
“It is impossible not to conclude that there is reason to believe he might hurt someone” based on the drawings, McDonald said.
James and Jennifer Crumbley were summoned to the school, where they were instructed to get Ethan into mental health counselling within 48 hours, McDonald said. They “resisted” the idea of taking their son home from school and did not search his backpack or ask him about the gun, she said.
He returned to class and later walked out of a bathroom with the gun, killing four students and injuring seven other people, authorities said.
When news of an active shooter at the school broke shortly after 1pm, Jennifer Crumbley sent Ethan a text message, urging him, “Don’t do it,” according to prosecutors. A few minutes later, James Crumbley called police to report that the gun was missing and he believed his son might be the shooter.
The gun had been stored in an unlocked drawer in the parents’ bedroom, McDonald said.
It was not immediately clear whether James and Jennifer Crumbley had legal representation.
Parents are rarely charged in connection with children’s school shootings. Unlike some states, Michigan does not legally require gun owners to keep their firearms secured from children.
The attack is the latest in a decades-long string of mass shootings at US schools.
Ethan Crumbley has been charged as an adult, even though he is under 18. Under Michigan law, prosecutors have the discretion to charge juveniles as adults when they commit certain violent crimes.
Authorities have previously said the shooting was premeditated, citing video recordings and a journal they recovered in which he described his intention to shoot students.
Reuters
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