Prosecutors offer disturbing timeline in explaining why parents of school shooting suspect are charged
In announcing the charges Friday, Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald offered a disturbing timeline in explaining why James and Jennifer Crumbley were charged in the fatal shooting.
“I want to be really clear that these charges are intended to hold the individuals responsible for this tragedy accountable, and also to send the message that gun owners are responsible,” McDonald said.
James Crumbley purchased the gun, a 9mm Sig Sauer SP2022 semi-automatic pistol, on Black Friday, November 26, at an Oxford shooter store. A store employee confirmed that Crumbley’s son Ethan was with him, prosecutors said.
Around the same day, Ethan Crumbley posted a photo on social media with the caption: “I just got a new look today. SIG SAUER 9mm.” McDonald’s said the post included a heart emoji.
Around November 27, Jennifer Crumbley posted on social media: “Mother’s Day and Son trying out his new Christmas present.”
The day before the shooting: Ethan Crumbley’s online search alarms a teacher
The day before the shooting, a teacher at Oxford High School saw Ethan Crumbley searching online for ammunition on his phone. McDonald said when the teacher reported it to school officials, the school left Jennifer Crumbley with a voicemail. There has been no response.
The school then emailed the parents and again no response from either of them.
Jennifer Crumbley then exchanged messages with her son, saying, “LOL – League of Legends, I’m not mad at you. You have to learn not to get caught.”
On the day of the shooting, a teacher found an alarming note that Ethan Crumbley had written
The prosecutor said that on November 30, the day of the shooting, Ethan Crumbley’s teacher came across a piece of paper “that freaked her out so much that she took a picture of it on her cell phone.”
“The drawing of a semi-automatic pistol pointing to the words ‘thinking won’t help me,'” said Mcdonald, and it included a drawing of a bullet with “blood everywhere” written on it, McDonald’s said.
“Between the drawing of the gun and the bullet is a drawing of a person who appears to have been shot twice and is bleeding profusely. Below that is a drawing of a smiling emoji,” McDonald said.
She said: “My life is useless” and “the world is dead” is scrawled on it.
Parents were called to the school immediately. A school counselor brings Ethan Crumbley and his backpack to the office. At that time, the drawing was changed: A drawing of a gun, a bloody human figure and the words “help me”, “My life is useless”, “The world is dead” and “blood is everywhere”. was scratched.
Parents are asked to counsel their sons
McDonald said the parents were shown the drawing and told they must consult their son within 48 hours.
The parents did not ask where the gun was and did not check his backpack for it, which he carried with him, she said.
Parents are “against” the idea of taking their sons out of school, and they leave without children. He went back to the classroom, McDonald said.
CNN this week attempted to reach Crumbley’s parents and is trying to identify their attorney and a new attorney for their son.
Ethan Crumbley is seen on surveillance footage with a gun, prosecutor says
According to prosecutor Marc Keast, just before 1 p.m. that day, school surveillance cameras showed Ethan Crumbley with a backpack, and a minute later, stepping out of the bathroom without it and with a gun gun in hand.
He began opening fire outside the bathroom, advancing down the hallway at “methodical speed,” firing inside classrooms and at students who had not escaped, Keast said.
At 1:22 p.m. that day, Jennifer Crumbley texted her son: “Ethan, don’t do that.”
But by that time, four students had been killed and six wounded, and her son had surrendered to law enforcement.
At 1:37 p.m., James Crumbley called 911, saying a gun was lost in his home and that he believed his son might have been the shooter.
McDonald’s said the gun was stored “unlocked in a drawer in James and Jennifer’s bedroom”.
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