Frequently left home alone, Ethan Crumbley texted his mother in March 2021 that he had seen a demon in their house, one that hurled dishes across the kitchen. Days later, his parents, James and Jennifer Crumbley, discussed how their teenage son was “worked up and agitated,” weighing whether to give him Xanax.
The next November, James Crumbley, ignoring what seemed like warning signs that Ethan had mental health issues, bought his son a semiautomatic handgun. Ethan, then 15, used the gun to kill four students at Oxford High School, the worst school shooting in Michigan history.
On Tuesday, Jennifer Crumbley, 45, is scheduled to go on trial, charged with involuntary manslaughter for the deaths — new territory when it comes to prosecuting school shootings. James Crumbley, 47, faces a separate trial, scheduled for March, also on involuntary manslaughter charges related to the killings.
Although adults have been prosecuted before when children commit violent crimes, the Oxford High School case goes a step further by trying to hold parents criminally liable for an intentional mass shooting. The Oakland County prosecutor, Karen D. McDonald, has said that the Crumbleys are culpable because they allowed their son access to a handgun while ignoring warnings that he was troubled.
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