Michigan shooting: suspect’s parents found hiding in warehouse

Michigan shooting: suspect’s parents found hiding in warehouse

Jennifer and James Crumbley face manslaughter charges
Son Ethan, 15, charged with murder over deadly school shooting



Joanna Walters and agencies
@Joannawalters13
Sat 4 Dec 2021 09.33 EST

First published on Fri 3 Dec 2021 12.16 EST

The parents of a teen accused of killing four students in a shooting at a Michigan high school were found hiding in a Detroit building early on Saturday, several hours after a prosecutor filed involuntary manslaughter charges against them, officials said.

Jennifer and James Crumbley, whose son Ethan Crumbley is accused of killing four students at a Michigan high school, were taken into custody after the pair went missing in the wake of being charged as part of the investigation into the mass shooting.

They were captured in a commercial building that housed artwork, the Detroit police chief, James E White, said at a news conference.

The Crumbleys’ attorney, Shannon Smith, said on Friday that the pair had left town earlier in the week “for their own safety” and would be returning to Oxford to face charges. But White seemed to dismiss the possibility that was their intention.

“This isn’t indicative of turning yourself in – hiding in a warehouse,” White said. He added that the couple “were aided in getting into the building” and that a person who helped them may also face charges.

A Detroit business owner spotted a car tied to the Crumbleys in his parking lot late on Friday, the Oakland county undersheriff Michael McCabe said in a statement. A woman seen near the vehicle ran away when the business owner called 911, McCabe said. The couple was later located and arrested by Detroit police.

He added that the parents appeared to be “distressed” when they were captured.
“Head down … just very upset,” he said of one of the parents.

Jennifer and James Crumbley were charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter but authorities on Friday said the whereabouts of the Crumbleys were not known, prompting a search.
A memorial outside Oxford high school.
Michigan school shooting: prosecutor explains rare terrorism charge
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Early on Saturday, Detroit police said that they had taken the pair into custody.

The parents were charged due to the issue of access to weapons. “The parents were the only individuals in the position to know the access to weapons,” the Oakland county prosecutor Karen McDonald said on Thursday. She added that the gun “seems to have been just freely available to that individual”.

Ethan Crumbley, 15, has been charged as an adult with two dozen crimes, including murder, attempted murder and terrorism, for the shooting on Tuesday at Oxford high school in Oakland county, roughly 30 miles north of Detroit.

Four students were killed and seven more people were injured. Three were in hospitals in stable condition.

The semi-automatic gun was bought legally by the teenager’s father last week, according to investigators.

The parents were summoned to the school a few hours before the shooting occurred after a teacher found a drawing of a gun, a person bleeding and the words “help me” and “blood everywhere” and a laughing emoji, McDonald said at a press conference on Friday morning. She said that they resisted their son’s removal.

Prosecutors have revealed more details of drawings and writings made by the gunman, suggesting the possibility that he was planning a shooting rampage.

Authorities have previously said school officials met with him and his parents the morning of the attack to discuss concerns about his behavior.

“Any individual who had the opportunity to stop this tragedy should have done so,” McDonald said.

Parents in the US are rarely charged in school shootings involving their children, even though most minors get guns from a parent or relative’s house, according to experts.

“Gun ownership is a right but with that right comes great responsibility,” McDonald said.

There is no Michigan law that requires gun owners keep weapons locked away from children. McDonald, however, suggested there was more to build a case on.

“All I can say at this point is those actions on mom and dad’s behalf go far beyond negligence,” she had told local station WJR-AM.

“We obviously are prosecuting the shooter to the fullest extent … There are other individuals who should be held accountable.”

McDonald said that Jennifer Crumbley had texted her son, “You have to learn not to get caught” after a teacher saw him searching online for ammunition.

She described the parents’ conduct as “unconscionable” and “criminal”.

Bouchard disclosed on Wednesday that the parents met with school officials about their son’s classroom behavior, just a few hours before the shooting.

McDonald said information about what had troubled the school “will most likely come to light soon”.

Crumbley stayed in school on Tuesday and later emerged from a bathroom with a gun, firing at students in the hallway, police said.

Tim Throne, leader of Oxford community schools, said the high school looks like a “war zone” and would not be ready for weeks. But he repeatedly credited students and staff for how they responded to the violence.

Brady, the gun control campaign group, applauded the charges against the parents.

Brady’s president, Kris Brown, said: “It is clear that these parents bear responsibility for creating conditions that allowed the tragic shooting at Oxford high school to occur. Safe storage saves lives and it fulfills an adult’s legal requirement to keep firearms out of the hands of minors. Doing less puts such adults in legal jeopardy, as we have seen here.”

With AP and Reuters