Oxford, Michigan, School Shooting

[AndyinPA]

I can't move any old stuff into here, but this looks like it's going to capture the headlines for a while and is a bit different from other school-related shootings because of the parents' alleged involvement.

https://www.npr.org/2021/12/14/10639832 ... ourt-again

The parents of Ethan Crumbley, the Michigan high school student charged with killing four other students, will be in court Tuesday for a probable cause hearing related to charges they face in connection with the tragedy.

James Crumbley and Jennifer Crumbley have pleaded not guilty to four counts of involuntary manslaughter. They each face a maximum prison sentence of 60 years and maximum fines of $30,000 if convicted on all four counts.

The court will hear testimony to determine whether there is enough "probable cause" to proceed to trial. According to WDIV-TV, it is possible that additional charges could be filed against the Crumbleys.

[raison de arizona]

Iffin' they were shackled hand to foot, they probably couldn't adjust their masks, fwiw.

[raison de arizona]

moar at thread, defense is going to file a motion regarding the $500k bail

[filly]

Thank you for starting this thread!

I peruse a number of Michigan website on the daily (the national press seems to have moved on, ho hum). Every single damn day school districts in the State are shutting down due to threats. Now I have a place to put the stories!

Oxford elementary, middle schools to reopen Wednesday following threat

Oxford Community Schools will reopen for elementary and middle school students Wednesday after a social media threat targeting the middle school on Tuesday prompted officials to cancel classes.

"All schools have been cleared by law enforcement to safely resume classes Wednesday, December 15. Please see your email from OCS for details," read an alert on the school district's website.

The decision to cancel classes, which came nearly two weeks after a Nov. 30 shooting at Oxford High School left four students dead and wounded six students and a teacher, was "out of an abundance of caution," the district said Monday evening. "We plan to do a full security check of all our buildings while our security experts and law enforcement conduct their investigation."


The high school is not expected to reopen until January, according to the district, but the elementary and middle schools returned for the first time since the shooting for half-days on Friday.

Since Nov. 30, schools in the state have seen an increase in threats against schools.

Students in Oakland County launched a petition on Dec. 6 to move classes online until after Christmas break, saying "continuous circulation of threats made to schools within Oakland County...have induced fear and taken an emotional toll on all students, making in-person learning essentially useless."

https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/ ... 893137002/

[raison de arizona]

What a nightmare, those poor children. What is wrong with people?!?

[AndyinPA]

There have been threats in the Pittsburgh Schools and surrounding suburbs, too, since the shootings at Oxford. My grandkids were talking about it over the weekend. My grandson's school was one of them, and he's only in second grade. He said they were doing the drill, but I think it was more than that.

[bob]

Devon "Legal Eagle" Stone made an explainer for the parents' charges:

Executive summary: "Because they're his parents" isn't quite accurate.

[Kendra]

https://www.cnn.com/2021/12/24/us/michi ... index.html

(CNN)Prosecutors in a filing say the parents of alleged Oxford High School shooter Ethan Crumbley are at a "greater risk of flight" now than when they were arraigned on involuntary manslaughter charges earlier this month and allege the couple "willfully ignored the needs and well-being of their son and the threat he posed to others."

The filing was obtained by CNN affiliate WDIV. CNN is attempting to obtain the filing as well.

Ethan Crumbley, 15, has been charged as an adult in the November 30 shooting at Oxford High School in Michigan that left four students dead. The shooting also left seven others -- six students and a teacher -- injured.

Prosecutors filed the motion in response to the Crumbleys' request for modified bond and detailed how the couple is more than $11,000 behind on their house payments, have sold their horses and have "already shown that they will flee if they get the opportunity" and detailed that the parents had four cell phones at the time of their arrest and "attempted to destroy one of the phones."

The filing alleges that when the Crumbleys left their son's school on November 30, over an hour before the shooting began, they knew their son was depressed and "fascinated with guns."

[filly]

Prosecutor on Crumbley warning signs: Ethan had bird head in jar, mom had affair





Rochester Hills — In the weeks leading up to the Oxford school shooting, suspect Ethan Crumbley's dog died, his only friend moved and he carried a baby bird's head in a jar to school, prosecutors said.

Despite signs of sadness and disturbing text messages, his mom engaged in an extramarital affair and both parents spent hours each week tending to the family's horses, prosecutors claim.

"Instead of paying attention to their son and getting him help, they bought him a gun," Oakland County prosecutors wrote in a court filing Thursday.

https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/ ... 010898002/

More at the link. This filing was in response to Defense Motion for Bail Reduction.

$11,000 behind on mortgage payments but money to buy the kid a Sig Sauer and they were driving a brand new car. Did they sell the horses to pay the lawyers? Because the lawyers are likely to cost a lot more than that.

[LM K]

These two are so disturbing. They've left their son to the wolves, run, and use all the money they can get for good legal counsel.

These two will run if given the opportunity.

Parents who disappear out of concern for their safety don't cower from police in a tiny room in a warehouse. They ask police for protection.

Question. Did they run because they thought they committed a crime?

[Phoenix520]

I think they ran out of a general sense of guilt. Guilt for, in no particular order, what Ethan did; their neglect -come on of course they were aware but didn’t care; affairs; past experiences with LE; unknown reasons which will probably come out.

[Dave from down under]

Running from responsibilities seems to be their norm.

[pipistrelle]

Drug abuse, affairs, and guns… typical cult members.

[AndyinPA]

https://polinews.org/judge-reportedly-s ... than-they/

In a new development to the infamous Crumbley case, James and Jennifer Crumbley, the parents of Oxford High School shooter Ethan Crumbley, were denied by a judge after their attorneys requested that their half-million dollar bonds each be reduced, and they be allowed out of jail on ankle monitors, according to a report from the Detroit News.

The bond reduction request was denied by 52-3 District Court Judge Julie Nicholson, as she cited Jennifer and James’ ties to family in Florida, as well as the seriousness of the crimes they stand accused of, and their history of fleeing and hiding out in “an abandoned building” in Detroit, following the public announcement of the charges against them.

Both Jennifer and James have officially been charged with involuntary manslaughter after their 15-year-old son Ethan opened fire in his high school, claiming the lives of 4 of his fellow students. Reports and prosecutors have indicated that the gun Ethan used to murder his classmates was gifted to him by his parents as an early Christmas gift.

[LM K]

In the months before the Oxford High School shooting in Michigan, the 15-year-old suspect, Ethan Crumbley, texted his mother about seeing demons and ghosts in the family home, filmed himself torturing animals and obsessed over firearms and Nazi propaganda, prosecutors say.


"The evidence shows a 15-year-old who had repeatedly informed his parents that he was hallucinating. The same 15-year-old continually demonstrated tendencies that were worrisome, all able to be found by his parents. He demonstrated one real passion in life, and that was firearms," said prosecutor Marc Keast, who urged the judge to dismiss the defense's request.


Prosecutors have justified the unusual charges against the Crumbley parents by saying they purchased the handgun used in the shooting as a Christmas gift for their son and did not secure it properly, in spite of "numerous warning signs" about their son's mental state.

Prosecutors say Ethan Crumbley began texting his mother about visions last March

In the hearing Friday, prosecutors spoke in the greatest detail yet about what those warning signs entailed — including visions, depression and animal torture.

"As far back as March of 2021, Ethan Crumbley would text his mother, Jennifer, on more than one occasion — and always when he was home alone — that he thought there was a demon, a ghost or someone else inside the home," Keast said. "These weren't one-time messages."

Additionally, prosecutors said, the younger Crumbley was obsessed with weapons. A notebook recovered from the Crumbley home is filled with images of guns, prosecutors said. He had also shown an interest in Nazi propaganda, including an internet purchase of a Nazi coin and drawing Nazi symbols.

Ethan Crumbley had practiced making Molotov cocktails at home and "searched school shootings and firearms so often on his phone that he received spam advertisements regarding his mental well-being and firearms," the prosecutor said.

Prosecutors had previously described the animal torture — including beheading a bird and storing the head in a jar in his bedroom — in a court filing in late December. "He did this at the family home. He filmed himself doing it," Keast said.

Lawyers for Crumbley's parents say they were unaware of animal torture


The Crumbleys purchased several new cellphones the day of the shooting, prosecutors said, and withdrew thousands of dollars in cash — including $3,000 from their son's bank account, leaving a balance of less than a dollar. They began to make arrangements to sell horses and purposefully positioned their vehicles in order to conceal license plates, said Oakland County prosecutor Karen McDonald.

This is disturbing and very sad.

Crumbley's parent knew a lot about their son's mental health problems and did nothing ... except buy him a gun.

[Foggy]

Yeah, they are damned lucky he didn't murder them both on his way to school that day.

[Tiredretiredlawyer]

I felt a great sadness when I first saw Ethan's picture and read his pleas for help. He has been neglected and suffers for it. The new evidence shows that.

[filly]

I feel a great sadness when I see the pictures of the innocent students Ethan Crumbley murdered. Their families will never recover from their grief.

[Slim Cognito]

It's too bad Ethan had shit for parents but he knew murder was bad, enough to alter his note and blame the violent content on video game development. I hope he gets the help he needs in prison. As for the parents, I hope they rot in there.

[pipistrelle]

It's too bad Ethan had shit for parents but he knew murder was bad, enough to alter his note and blame the violent content on video game development. I hope he gets the help he needs in prison. As for the parents, I hope they rot in there.

I feel but don’t know that some people are irredeemably broken. He could be one of them.

[LM K]

I felt a great sadness when I first saw Ethan's picture and read his pleas for help. He has been neglected and suffers for it. The new evidence shows that.

When your child tells you that he is hallucinating, you get to your pediatrician or ER ... immediately. (Hallucinations aren't always caused by mental illness and are a medical emergency regardless of cause )

When I saw Ethan's drawing saying "the thoughts won't stop, help me", I suspected that a dissociative disorder might have been a piece of a very complicated puzzle. Now we know Ethan was hallucinating.

Ethan told his parents about his symptoms. He was seeing things for at least 8-9 months.
In court, his parents say "we didn't know he was torturing animals!".

But you knew he was hallucinating ... there's hard evidence showing you knew for months and did nothing.

Ethan never had a chance.

[LM K]

Officials have previously shared that Ethan Crumbley was caught searching for ammo at school the day before the shooting and had drawn violent images the day of the shooting.

On Friday, Keast said that school staff performed a suicide risk assessment when those drawings were discovered, and Ethan Crumbley's parents were called.

Keast said the parents resisted taking their son home from school because they had to work.

"We later learned that Jennifer Crumbley’s employer would have gladly given her the day off, and she didn’t have any meetings scheduled until later in the day," Keast said.

James Crumbley was a DoorDash driver, he added.

The Crumbleys asked a friend to bring them orange juice and vodka while hiding.

#winners

[Tiredretiredlawyer]

I am choosing not to go to DEFCON 1 after reading about the parents' vodka request. Alcohol seems to be one of the major contributing factors to their neglect of Ethan.

[pipistrelle]

I want to know how they afforded horses and how they neglected one child. Epitome of self-centered non-parenting.

And if they knew he was hallucinating and showing other signs of illness, why they encouraged tools of violence.

[pipistrelle]

I felt a great sadness when I first saw Ethan's picture and read his pleas for help. He has been neglected and suffers for it. The new evidence shows that.

When your child tells you that he is hallucinating, you get to your pediatrician or ER ... immediately. (Hallucinations aren't always caused by mental illness and are a medical emergency regardless of cause )

All I can think is they were the type of parents thinking he was making it up for attention.