Parents of Teen School-Shooter Charged and Convicted
After 15-year-old Ethan Crumbley brought a gun to school and murdered 4 classmates and injured 6 other students and 1 teacher at his Michigan high school in November, 2021 prosecutors charged not only him but his parents. The theory of the case against the parents was that they ignored abundant signs their minor child was making violent threats, bought him a gun, and failed to take steps to secure the gun. The parents were tried separately. Last month Jennifer Crumbley, the shooter's mother, was found guilty on 4 counts of involuntary manslaughter (ABC News article, 6 Feb 2024). Today James Crumbley, the shooter's father, was convicted on 4 counts of involuntary manslaughter (ABC News article, 14 Mar 2024).
One of the telling pieces of evidence in the parents' trials was a picture a teacher snapped with her cellphone hours before the shooting. The shooter allegedly drew this in math class. The teacher, alarmed, notified school administrators.
The drawings show a handgun, a bullet, and a person apparently injured with gunshot wounds and a large pool of blood. Written next to these drawings are "Blood everywhere" and "The thoughts wont stop Help me". Elsewhere on the page were and "My life is useless" and "The world is dead".
The school principal called the boy's parents to the school and showed them the drawing. By then the boy had crossed out parts of the his doodling and added some cheery phrases. But the alarming parts were still visible. The parents denied there was anything wrong with the drawing and flatly refused, when asked, to take their son out of school for the rest of the day. Ethan Crumbley went on to shoot 11 people, killing 4 of them, later that day with a handgun he already had in his school bag.
Among the parents' defenses at their trial was that they didn't know their son was troubled. They hadn't seen any signs. WTF?! How much more obvious of a sign did they need?!?!
BTW, this wasn't the only sign. There were other incidents at school, too, where teachers and administrators reported concerns to the parents. The parents dismissed all of those, too. And in other evidence it was shown they at least knew he was feeling bad. Their solution? They bought him a gun and gave it to him as an early Christmas gift as a pick-me-up. It was the gun he used a day later to shoot 11 people, killing 4.
One of the telling pieces of evidence in the parents' trials was a picture a teacher snapped with her cellphone hours before the shooting. The shooter allegedly drew this in math class. The teacher, alarmed, notified school administrators.
The drawings show a handgun, a bullet, and a person apparently injured with gunshot wounds and a large pool of blood. Written next to these drawings are "Blood everywhere" and "The thoughts wont stop Help me". Elsewhere on the page were and "My life is useless" and "The world is dead".
The school principal called the boy's parents to the school and showed them the drawing. By then the boy had crossed out parts of the his doodling and added some cheery phrases. But the alarming parts were still visible. The parents denied there was anything wrong with the drawing and flatly refused, when asked, to take their son out of school for the rest of the day. Ethan Crumbley went on to shoot 11 people, killing 4 of them, later that day with a handgun he already had in his school bag.
Among the parents' defenses at their trial was that they didn't know their son was troubled. They hadn't seen any signs. WTF?! How much more obvious of a sign did they need?!?!
BTW, this wasn't the only sign. There were other incidents at school, too, where teachers and administrators reported concerns to the parents. The parents dismissed all of those, too. And in other evidence it was shown they at least knew he was feeling bad. Their solution? They bought him a gun and gave it to him as an early Christmas gift as a pick-me-up. It was the gun he used a day later to shoot 11 people, killing 4.