There was a fair amount of chaos following the filing of charges against James and Jennifer Crumbley, the parents of the suspected Oxford High School shooter.
The Oxford Village couple, charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter each, were eventually taken into police custody Saturday morning in Detroit. They are accused of contributing to the school shooting that police say was carried out by their son, Ethan Crumbley, 15.
The Oxford High School sophomore student is accused of firing dozens of shots from a 9 mm pistol in the halls of the school on Nov. 30, fatally striking four students and injuring seven other people.
During a news conference Saturday afternoon, Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said it’s unlikely that Ethan Crumbley is aware that his parents have been arrested and charged, let alone that they are lodged at the same jail as he is, since he has been in isolation.
Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald announced charges on Friday against James and Jennifer Crumbley, days after Ethan Crumbley had been arraigned on his 24 charges. On Friday, McDonald sat down with Flashpoint host Devin Scillian to discuss her thought process behind charging Ethan Crumbley’s parents in connection with the shooting.
“My thought was, ‘Well, how did ... the shooter get access to that weapon?’” McDonald said. “That first question led to a series of facts that just left it completely out of the question that I not charge the mom and the dad. It was clear from social media posts that the weapon was bought for him, he had easy access to it, it was not safely secured, he essentially considered it his gun. There were some warning signs here that were ignored.”
Watch the interview in segment one of the Dec. 4, 2021 episode of Flashpoint in the video player above.
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