Ethan Crumbley: Sheriff says suspect was ‘looking forward’ to attack as parents appear in court

It is extremely rare for prosecutors to bring charges against the parents of school shooters, experts say.

A Washington Post analysis of 105 school shootings between 1999 and 2018 found that the guns used were taken from the shooters home - or that of a relative or friend - in 84 cases.

However, only four of those cases saw adult owners of the weapons face criminal charges.

In regards to the case against Jennifer and James Crumbley, NBC legal analyst Danny Cevallos told the outlet: “They have a clear path to a conviction, if they have the evidence.

“Does this herald a new era of holding parents responsible for homicides committed by their children? Maybe.”

Before the tragic school shooting in Oxford, Michigan, school officials were aware Ethan Crumbley was displaying troubling behaviours in class, such as looking up information about ammunition and drawing images of graphic violence. They were so alarmed they even called Mr Crumbley’s parents into the school the day of the shooting for a meeting. However, the superintendent of Michigan’s Oxford Community Schools has said Ethan’s actions prior to the shooting weren’t enough to warrant discipline from the school, and that the 15-year-old alleged shooter didn’t have a record of misbehaviour. Read more in Shweta Sharma’s report.

Police in Michigan, now officially aided by the FBI and the US Marshals Service, are on the hunt for Jennifer and James Crumbley.

Alleged Oxford school shooter Ethan Crumbley’s parents were charged today with four counts each of involuntary manslaughter each, but haven’t appeared for their scheduled arraignment.

As a result, authorities have labelled them fugitives and put out a Be On The Lookout (BOLO) alert for the pair and their Kia SUV, even though the couple’s lawyers insist they aren’t on the run.

A crowd of community members gathered outside the McClaren Hospital in Oxford, Michigan, on Friday in support of Justin Shillings, one of the four teens killed in the Oxford High School mass shooting earlier this week.

Mr Shillings is an organ donor, and the crowd was there to show their support for his family as the teen’s body was moved into surgery.

Journalist Allie Gross took a picture of the gathering, which she described as solemn and silent.

The Oxford High School mass shooting already claimed the lives of four people and injured seven—and it could’ve been even worse, a video captured by a student reveals.

The clip, posted on TikTok, shows students hiding out in a classroom, refusing to open the door for the alleged shooter, even though he claims he is the sheriff.

The US Marshals Service, the federal agency responsible for judicial security and apprehending federal fugitives, has officially joined the hunt for Jennifer and James Crumbley, who have been charged with involuntary manslaughter for the Oxford High School mass shooting but haven’t shown for their planned arraignment.

“The US Marshals have adopted the case of the search for James and Jennifer Crumbley, the parents of the accused Oxford HS (Mich.) shooter,” the agency wrote in a statement on Friday. “The USMS Detroit Fugitive Apprehension team is working in conjunction with the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office on the search.”

Following the mass shooting at Oxford High School in Michigan this week, the inevitable question on many minds was: were there any warning signs that people missed before the tragic killings? According to local prosecutors, the parents of Ethan Crumbley, the alleged shooter, were apparently suspicious enough that their son could be at risk of committing violence that when they heard news of the shooting, Mr Crumbley’s mother Jennifer texted her son, “Don’t do it.”

During a press conference on Friday, Oakland County prosecutor Karen McDonald said that alleged shooter Ethan Crumbley was able to easily take his father’s gun out of an unlocked drawer the day of the mass shooting.

Other states and countries have tried numerous ways of reducing the risk of guns falling into the hands of young people, from safe storage rules to outright bans on firearms.

Here are some promising solutions that The Independent has covered in recent years.

Social media commentators are comparing Ethan Crumbley’s missing parents to Brian Laundrie, the person of interest of interest and boyfriend of murdered travel vlogger Gabby Petito, who fled police before dying by suicide after a nationwide manhunt. Here’s some of our coverage on Laundrie:

And here’s what some commentators online are saying about the parallels between the two cases:

The mother of Ethan Crumbley, the 15-year-old boy accused of killing four classmates at his Oxford, Michigan high school, sent him texts warning him not to get caught after the boy was found reading about ammunition on his phone while in class and telling him “don’t so it” after initial reports of shots fired at the school became public.

The Independent’s Graig Graziosi has the details.