A prosecutor revealed details surrounding text messages exchanged between Ethan Crumbley and his mother during a shooting at Oxford High School in Oxford, Michigan.
During a press conference Friday, Oakland County Prosecuting Attorney Karen McDonald announced charges against Ethan Crumbly’s parents in connection with the shooting he allegedly carried out on Tuesday.
Jennifer Crumbley and James Crumbley were both charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter.
McDonald went into the details of the events that took place leading up to and on the day of the shooting that killed four and injured seven others.
She noted on November 21, a teacher at the school observed “Ethan Crumbley searching ammunition on his cell phone during class and reported the same to school officials.”
McDonald continued, “Jennifer Crumbley was contacted via voicemail by school personnel regarding the son’s inappropriate Internet search. School personnel indicate they followed that voicemail up with an e-mail but received no response from either parent.”
She went on to report that Jennifer Crumbley “exchanged text messages about the incident with her son on that day, stating, ‘Lol, I’m not mad at you, you have to learn not to get caught.'”
BREAKING: Authorities detail reasons behind decision to charge parents with multiple counts of involuntary manslaughter in connection to Michigan high school shooting. https://t.co/UO3yJOVJx2 pic.twitter.com/t2aVx2oc5u
— ABC News (@ABC) December 3, 2021
According to McDonald, on the day of the shooting, “Ethan Crumbley’s teacher came upon a note on Ethan’s desk which alarmed her to the point she took a picture of it on her cell phone.”
She added, “The note contained the following: a drawing of a semiautomatic handgun pointing at the words, ‘The thoughts won’t stop help me.’ Another section was a drawing of a bullet with the following words above that bullet, ‘Blood everywhere.'”
In between the drawing of the gun and bullet “is a drawing of a person who appears to have been shot twice and bleeding. Below that figure is a drawing of a laughing emoji. Further down the drawing are the words ‘my life is useless,’ and to the… right of that are the words ‘the world is dead.'”
Ethan Crumbley’s parents were then asked to come to the school. He was removed from the classroom and brought to the office with his backpack.
“Counselor obtained the drawing but the shooter had already altered it. The drawings of the gun and the bloody figure were scratched out along with the words ‘help me’ and ‘my life is useless,’ ‘the world is dead’ and ‘blood everywhere.’ Those were all altered by him,” McDonald explained.
His parents saw the drawing and were required to get their son into counseling within 48 hours.
“Both James and Jennifer Crumbley failed to ask their son if he had his gun with him or where his gun was located and failed to inspect his backpack for the presence of the gun which he had with him,” McDonald said.
She went on, “James and Jennifer Crumbley resisted the idea of…their son leaving at that time. Instead, James and Jennifer Crumbley left the high school without their son. He was returned to the classroom.”
McDonald said when the news of the shooting broke, “Jennifer Crumbley texted to her son at … 1:22 p.m., ‘Ethan, don’t do it.'”