A school shooting that killed four students in Michigan could have been prevented if the mother of the armed teen had removed him after seeing his violent drawings that same day.
A school shooting that killed four students in Michigan could have been prevented if the mother of the armed teen had removed him after seeing his violent drawings that same day, a prosecutor told jurors Thursday in an uncommon trial about parental responsibility.
Jennifer Crumbley is charged with involuntary manslaughter in the Nov. 30, 2021, attack at Oxford High School. Prosecutors say she and husband James Crumbley were grossly negligent and that their son’s actions were foreseeable.
Jennifer Crumbley was aware of Ethan Crumbley’s deteriorating mental health and social isolation and knew that a gun drawn on a math assignment resembled the one that he had used with her at a shooting range, assistant prosecutor Marc Keast said.
“This was a purchase celebrated by Jennifer on Instagram: ‘Mom and son day testing out his new X-mas present,’” Keast said, quoting a social media post.
Instead of taking the boy home from school after seeing the drawing, Jennifer and husband James Crumbley left a meeting after 11 minutes and allowed him to stay. He soon killed four students and wounded several others.
