An outside party will investigate the events leading up to deadliest school-related shooting for three years as questions continued to swirl around the community of Oxford, Michigan, ravaged.
The director of Oxford Community Academy, Tim Throne, said he had called for a third-party investigation because parents had raised questions about the “school’s version of events” related to Tuesday’s shooting that left four people dead. Students were killed, 6 other students and a teacher were injured.
“It is extremely important to our victims, our employees, and our entire community that full and transparent accounting is in place,” Throne said in a statement Saturday. .
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel on Sunday said she has recommended her department’s services to conduct an independent investigation. “We have reached out to attorneys for the Oxford Community School District and have requested the services of the Michigan Attorney General to conduct a full and comprehensive review of the 11/30/21 shooting and other incidents. events that led to the shooting”. Nessel tweeted,
Concern about the warning signs of the tragedy has increased in recent days.
Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald on Friday gave a red light on the student charged in the shootings, including a cell phone search for gunfire that a teacher observed one day. before the incident and a note found on the suspect’s desk hours before the shooting shows. drawing of a bullet with the words “blood everywhere” near a person who appears to have been shot down.
Ethan Crumbley, 15 years old – who is now counted as an adult with murder, terrorism and other crimes — was taken to the guidance counselor’s office where he claimed the drawing was part of a video game he was designing, Throne said. Crumbley did his homework under the supervision of counselors, he said, until his parents arrived.
“At no time should counselors believe that students can harm others based on seemingly calm behavior, reactions, and mannerisms,” says Throne.
“While both his father and mother were present, the counselors asked specific probing questions about the potential for self-harm or harm to others,” Throne said, adding advice for he and his parents were told they had 48 hours to look for it. . “When parents were asked to bring their son home for the day, they flatly refused and left without their son, apparently to get back to work.”
All 3 in cusody:James and Jennifer Crumbley with their son in custody after being arrested late at night in Detroit
Crumbley returned to class with his backpack and was not notified to authorities. The shooting broke out hours later.
“The school should have been responsible for passing it on to the sheriff’s office. It looks like this could have been prevented,” said Robert Jordan, founder and director of St. Louis, said Friday. “People have died because of those mistakes.”
Prosecutors on Friday charged his parents, James and Jennifer Crumbley, with four counts of involuntary manslaughter.
Authorities say the 9mm semi-automatic pistol used in the shooting was purchased by James Crumbley at a local gun store on Black Friday as a Christmas present for his son.
Parents are arrested after a rigorous manhunt; all 3 in the same prison
The parents were sorted Saturday just hours after a dramatic manhunt by local, state and federal law enforcement. Officials say the couple took $4,000 from an ATM in Rochester Hills and ended up in Detroit, where police found them in an art studio inside a commercial building on the east side of the city.
James and Jennifer Crumbley – aged 45 and 43 respectively – appeared in video court later that morning. Jennifer Crumbley was frustrated when asked if she understood the allegations against her and James Crumbley shook his head several times when McDonald spoke.
“These two individuals could have stopped it and they had every reason to know that he was dangerous and they gave him a weapon and they didn’t secure it and they gave him free access. into it,” McDonald said during the hearing on Saturday.
The son of the couple accused of killing 4 students – Hana St. Juliana, 14 years old; Tate Myre, 16 years old; Madisyn Baldwin, 17, and Justin Shilling, 17 – and injured seven others.
The couple’s attorneys, Shannon Smith and Mariell Lehman, charged prosecutors with cherry-picking circumstances in the case and said there was more going on than the court was aware of.
Parental relationship at 1 million:Bonds set at $1 million total for parents of Michigan school shooting suspect after overnight arrest
Both parents pleaded not guilty.
Judge Julie Nicholson set the bond each at $500,000 in cash – significantly more than the $50,000 to $100,000 demanded by the couple’s attorneys, but the amount prosecutors had search. Involuntary manslaughter is punishable by up to 15 years in prison.
All three Crumbleys are in the same prison, but they are not allowed to interact with each other. “No talking. No contact,” Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said. “All three are isolated.”
The old neighbor recalls years ago
A former neighbor told the Free Press she was worried about raising their children long before Tuesday’s tragedy.
Jennifer and James Crumbley often left their young son home alone while drinking at bars in downtown Lake Orion in 2014 and 2015, former neighbor Kayla LeMieux said. The boy was about 8 to 9 years old at the time.
The couple, who were recorded married in 2005, lived near downtown Lake Orion before moving to Oxford.
That involved LeMieux, 28, so much so that she said she filed an anonymous complaint over the phone with the state’s Child Protective Service.
‘Murder intent’: The time of the fatal shooting at Oxford High School
“When they were away, he would come knocking on our door,” LeMieux said of the boy. “They didn’t leave him a phone.” She will ask LeMieux to call her parents.
LeMieux said she never knew if any action was taken following the complaint with Child Protective Services. State officials said Saturday they could not comment.
Bob Wheaton, a spokesman for the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, wrote in an email: “CPS complaints are confidential by law.
Contribution: Associated Press
